Super Eagles players celebrate in the dressing room after booking a spot in AFCON 2019

AgegePulse Magazine

This is the first time the Super Eagles are reaching the AFCON since they won the title in 2013

Super Eagles dressing room at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg lit up with celebration after their 1-1 draw against South Africa confirmed their place in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

The Super Eagles 1-1 draw gives them a point which now means Nigeria have 10 points from five games.


The 10 points guarantee them a top-two finish-top-two of every group qualify for AFCON 2019- in Group E of the AFCON 2019 qualifiers.

After the game, the Super Eagles celebrated loudly in the dressing room of the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg where the game was played.

Kelechi Iheanacho who played for 69 minutes in the game shared a video on his Instagram stories of him and his Super Eagles teammates celebrating in the dressing room.

Musa also shared a video of the players singing and dancing in the dressing room after the 1-1 draw against South Africa.

Pulse Ng

Operator to assemble BRT Buses in Lagos 2019

The operator of Bus Rapid Transit system in Lagos, Primero Transport Services Limited, has said its bus assembly plant being built in the state will begin operation in the second quarter of next year.

The Managing Director of the firm, Mr Fola Tinubu, disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday.

He also spoke on plans by the firm to phase out manual ticketing and replace it with a card system in the first quarter of 2019.

Tinubu said that Primero had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with one of the biggest bus manufacturers in the world, Yutong, to establish the bus assembly plant in Lagos.

Already, he said that the plant had been set up in Epe and expressed the hope that it would go into mass production of high capacity buses by the second quarter of 2019 when a new BRT corridor being constructed by the Lagos State Government between Oshodi and Abule-Egba would have been completed and allowed to operate.

According to him, the transport firm which started full operation in November 2015, currently has 434 buses conveying 150,000 people daily across major terminals between Ikorodu and Tafawa Balewa Square.

Tinubu said the company planned to increase to 200,000 passengers daily on the Ikorodu/TBS corridor, adding that should Primero win the bid to operate the Abule-Egba/Oshodi corridor, it would deploy additional 350 buses in the route.

He said the organisation hoped to increase its buses to 2,000 with capacity to convey one million passengers daily.

On the plan to completely phase out manual ticketing in the first quarter of 2019, he said all passengers would be compelled to embrace the card system to remove the hassle of queuing to buy tickets.

He called for a conference of all the stakeholders to discuss how to make the public transportation work in Lagos and ensure its viability for investors.

“The discussion must hold if you don’t want the BRT system to collapse like the LSTC and other public transportation arrangements,” he said.

The MD said Primero, 100 per cent privately-owned, had been paying certain percentage of its revenue to the state government giving it the exclusive right to use the dedicated BRT lanes constructed by the government.

Tinubu, however, noted that there had not been any increase in bus fares in the last eight years, despite continuous rise in its operational costs.

“Our biggest challenge is the naira devaluation. We borrow a lot of money in dollars; we import parts in dollars and when the naira nose-dived, our debts doubled and the cost of parts we use has doubled,” he said.

Source: Punch

2019: Atiku Emerges PDP Presidential Candidate

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has emerged as the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Flagbearer in the 2019 elections.

Atiku scored 1,532 votes to defeat 11 other contestants including Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who scored 693 votes and Senate President, Bukola Saraki who placed third with 317 votes.

Rabiu Kwankwaso polled 158 votes, Ibrahim Dankwambo (111 votes), Sule Lamido (96 votes), Ahmed Makarfi (74 votes), Tanimu Turaki (65 votes), Attahiru Bafarawa (48 votes), David Mark (35 votes), Jonah Jang (19 votes), Datti Ahmed (05 votes).

The Chief Returning Officer at the convention and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, declared the former Vice President as the winner after the votes were counted at the Adokiye Amiesemeka stadium, the venue of the PDP National Convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Atiku will now face the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, President Muhammadu Buhari, in the 2019 presidential election.

I am Nigeria’s next president, says Kwankwaso

Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, former Kano State governor and PDP presidential aspirant, says he will “easily beat President Muhamadu Buhari” if given his party’s ticket to contest the presidential election in 2019.

Kwankwaso, who spoke on Thursday in Jos, during a consultation visit to the North-Central state, said he has the ability to wrestle power from the APC.

“I come from a state which has the highest number of voters that can sway an election in my favour.


“If I pick the PDP ticket, I will be the next president of this nation.
“I have the hunger to save Nigeria from its current troubles. I have my plan to make Nigeria a better country for all.

“I have massive support from the North-West and will get even more supporters if given the ticket,” he said.
The aspirant promised to run an all-inclusive government, a leadership virtue he accused the APC administration of lacking.

“A key solution to Nigeria’s problems is a participatory government that will ward off mutual suspicion and distrust. It will address the gap in communication which is largely responsible for farmer/herder clashes, religious violence and ethnic crisis in the country,” he said.

(NAN)

Punch

Why Buhari uncompromising, power drunk - Atiku

Olusola Fabiyi and Oladimeji Ramon

A former Vice-President,  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has expressed the fear that the 2019 presidential election may not be free with President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military man, now leading the country.

He said unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in power during the 2015 general elections and was “much more level-headed” being a “peaceful, (and) very patriotic Nigerian,” the country was now dealing with “a retired general, (who is) very uncompromising, also power-drunk; (and) who will not be ready to leave power without a fight.”

An AFP report quoted Atiku, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, as saying on Monday evening that these were “some of my fears for the current elections.”

“The characters that are involved this time, as far as the leadership of this country is concerned, are different from 2015,” he said.

Atiku also tasked Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) to explain to Nigerians the decision by the Federal Government to share $322m Abacha’s loot and also begged for a fresh $328m loan from China.

The new loan is said to be for Information and Communications Technology development.

Atiku was reacting to Osinbajo’s response to the former Vice President’s reaction to the need to restructure the country.

Atiku accused Osinbajo of not being coherent in his arguments, saying he was merely jumping from one topic to the other.

He said, “I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.

“If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.

“Professor Osinbajo also harps on ‘prudence in public finance,’ but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322m of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328m from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.

“Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says ‘In four years from 2010 to 2014, the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, $381.9bn. By contrast, the Buhari administration has earned $121bn from May 2015 to June 2018’, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.”

Atiku further said that while he was the Vice President in 2006, Nigeria’s Economic Management Team, of which he was a prominent member, paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt of $30bn, at a time when he said the country was earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So, such arguments are puerile at best.

He advised the Vice President to choose whether he was for restructuring or whether he was against it and stick to his choice.

He said it was not in the interest of the professor of law to be jumping from one argument to the other without any clear point.

He rejected Osinbajo’s assertion that his (Atiku’s ) ideas on restructuring were vague, saying restructuring was a necessity, not an option.

In a statement he signed in Abuja on Tuesday, he accused Osinbajo of making a U-turn on the issue of restructuring.

The former Vice President said of Osinbajo, “Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring.’

“I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like ‘geographic restructuring’.

Punch

How we plan to unseat Buhari – Moghalu, Sowore, Onovo, others

Eniola Akinkuotu, Success Nwogu, Okechukwu Nnodim and Tunde Ajaja

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, presidential aspirants under the different political parties have reeled out some of the tactics they plan to employ to unseat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.

In separate interviews with our correspondents during the week, the aspirants said contrary to the belief that only the big parties stand a better chance of winning the election, they were in the race to win, adding that Nigerians were tired of the big players in the country’s political space.

A presidential aspirant under the Young Progressive Party and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, said the party would work with others and persuade Nigerians to vote  out Buhari in 2019.

He said, “I am in the race for the presidency based on a vision I have for my country, which is one of nation-building to create a united country that works for all of us. I want to provide leadership that is beyond mere politics, establish an educational system fit for purpose in the 21st century for our kids, and create.

“Nigerian security outfits are protecting regimes and not Nigerians. This government is very subversive and has no respect for the rule of law. This is an invitation to anarchy. Buhari must go and Nigerians will reject him through the ballot.”

Similarly, a presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof. Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davies, said she was confident she would employ a populist approach to raise money to fund her campaign. She added that it was time women took more active role in governance at national level.

She noted that as an academic, she had understudied the country and had solutions to its challenges.

According to her, many people have shown support for her aspirations, adding that she will galvanise more Nigerians to actualise her aspiration of being the country’s next president.

She added, “Absolutely, I know it is possible for me to beat President Muhammadu Buhari because Nigerians are tired of his government and they are fed up with the empty promises that they made that they will bring a change. It is time to effect the real change, different from what the APC is doing. It is time we had a woman as the president of this country; we need serious change.”

Some of the aspirants, whose parties had joined the Coalition of United Political Parties, said they were confident that if they emerge as the consensus candidate of the CUPP, unseating Buhari would not be a difficult task.

An aspirant under the KOWA Party, Mr. Ayo Lijadu, said if he emerges as the candidate of the CUPP, it would give him a better platform to win the election, in spite of the dominance of the two political parties.

He said, “The reality is that it is not easy to dislodge an incumbent president, especially given the larger than life image and resources available to the party in power, but the strategy is the bonding together of parties that are like-minded in their objective to dislodge the government that has been rejected by the people.

“That strategy is the most effective; when over 40 political parties, including the disgruntled members of the ruling party, bond together to produce a single presidential candidate. Some of these parties have structure all over the country, so it is wise that we all come together. My party is part of the CUPP and that strategy will work.”

When asked on his plans for funding, he said, “By the time we have a single presidential candidate, the task of sourcing for funds would not be left to that individual candidate or their party, because there is an understanding that all the parties will come together to support, and it’s not just material or structural support, funding support would also come into place.

Also, an aspirant under the platform of the National Conscience Party, Mr. Martin Onovo, told Saturday PUNCH that he was confident he would emerge as the consensus candidate of the CUPP.

This, he said would help him to win the election, adding that it was unlike in the past when money had a role to play in determining the outcome of the presidential election.

Onovo said, “It is very clear that the coalition is going to produce me. It is not confidence but hard fact. The country wants a younger person as President in 2019.

Atiku Promises To End Boko Haram As President

Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is aspiring to become President in 2019, on Tuesday, said he would put an end to the Boko Haram crisis in the shortest time after his inauguration as Nigeria’s number one citizen.

Abubakar, who is one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, made the vow while addressing his supporters at the Forshams Hall, Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital.

He said, “Nigeria ended its civil war in only two and a half years despite the thick forest in the South-East. I wonder why the war against insurgency took us nine years; there must be something wrong somewhere.”

He added, “If elected, I will not allow any commander to tell me stories, we must end insurgency within the shortest possible time because the insurgency has crippled everything in the North-East.”

The Director-General, Atiku campaign Organisation, Senator Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State, said they were in Maiduguri in consultation with PDP stakeholders in Borno.

He said, “This is the chance for the people of the North-East to produce the next President, you should not miss this opportunity to produce the President. So, I call on you to support one of your own.”

Earlier speaking, the Borno State Coordinator,  Atiku Campaign Organisation, Alhaji Mohammed Imam, said there was no need for them to be in Maiduguri, “as he (Atiku) need not campaign in the state.”

“Borno State is your own; you need not to campaign. We the people of Borno and Yobe are behind your candidature,” he promised.

Headline News - AgegePulse

*AgegePulse *Headlines Today*
*[Mon-04-Dec-2017]*

*Punch Newspaper*
Convention: PDP removes ex-govs, deputies as automatic delegates

Ajimobis chieftaincy review is reversible Olubadan

Im still entitled to $800m compensation, says Kanu

Presidential ticket: Ex-VP Atiku rejoins PDP, Makarfi says I may contest

20 more exotic cars for Reps arrive

SERAP urges Buhari to probe privatisation process

Buhari will know his friends after leaving power Sani

IGP: FG amends falsehood charges against Misau

Yuletide: LASG urges vigilance

Oyintiloye bags award

Osun has resolved 5,000 herdsmen, farmers clashes

Tourism master plan coming, says Ambode

Prepare for 2019 elections

Lagos promises support to investors

Minibus smuggling people into Turkey crashes, kills 11

PDP should focus on recapturing Presidency 'Dickson

PDP chair: S'West consensus candidate not possible, says George

PDP will become solid after convention 'Jonathan


*Vanguard Newspaper*
Ugwuanyi flags off construction of 4 more rural roads

Don't politicise Ogoni clean-up, ex-Deputy Speaker tells Wike

Otuaro remains my running mate in 2019 'Okowa

Miyetti Allah threatens legal action over Benue, Taraba grazing laws

Nigeria has deep cultural issues affecting insurance growth ' CIIN boss

Insurers should create products that customers need ' COO, AIICO

INVESTMENT: Tambuwal, Chinese envoy seek closer ties

PDP Convention: North backs Odeyemi for Deputy National Publicity Secretary

Olubadan chieftaincy review reversible ' MONARCH

LG autonomy: Ex-chairmen beg NUT to suspend nationwide protest

PDP CHAIR: It's late for consensus S-West candidate ' George

Nigeria suffering from broken public finance ' Soludo

PDP National Chairman: IBB warns against monetisation of contest

Jonathan not maintaining dignity after leaving office ' Oyegun

How Atiku took over PDP

DBIR office, others sealed off over alleged 2 years rent

PDP Chairmanship: IBB decries money politics

Atiku return to PDP a welcome development ' Ekweremadu


*The Nation Newspaper*
Universidad de Oviedo's move excites Okoye

IBB, Jonathan reject PDP governors choice for chair

IBB frightened by deployment of cash to 'buy' PDP chair

No cause for alarm over terror alert, says Fed Govt

Olubadan: chieftaincy law review reversible

Emefiele is best CBN Governor ever, says Ovia

Recovered weapons in Ondo unsettles Presidency

Turai Yar'Adua's N10b Abuja cancer centre abandoned

Nigeria committed to leading role against extremism, says Buhari

ACF condemns Biu attack

PDP members defect to APC in Gboko

Investors gain N4tr in equities

Libya: Action, not rhetoric

Retirees to get increment on monthly pension

Bad loans

Why I believe power sector 'll be fixed, by Fashola

EFCC vs DSS

Nigeria owes World Bank Group $7.8b

Why we are raising N131.65b, by Lafarge Africa

Law Union achieves 60% target

Fed Govt implements revised import, export guidelines next month

Onyema, Ezekwesili stress financial literacy

Sterling Bank donates items to Cross River

Nigeria eyes over N240b from cocoa export

Whistleblowing made tough

PDP Chair: IBB, Johnathan in support of my ambition, says Daniel


*Thisday Newspaper*
How Oando's Forensic AuditMay Have Cost Gwarzo His Job

Ovia: Emefiele is Nigeria's Best CBN Governor Ever

CBN Injects $14.2bn into FX Market in Nine Months

Buhari Challenges World Moslem Leaders to Resist Violence by Islamists

Terror Attack Alert: FG Assures of Adequate Security Measures in Abuja

9mobile Denies Speculations of Barclays Withdrawal as Financial Adviser

PDP Convention: North Divided over Micro Zoning

Advocaat Wins Law Firm of the Year Award

Ade-Ojo: Nigeria's Auto Industry Expected to Grow by 5% in 2018

Atiku Rejoins PDP, No Automatic Ticket for Him, Says Makarfi

PDP Clears Council Polls in Akwa Ibom

Ciroma: Why PDP Will Retake Power in 2019

Industrial Manifesto for Africa

Jonathan: PDP will Emerge Stronger from National Convention

Grand Conspiracy to Cover up Maina Scandal

Fresh Hurdles for Anambra Central Senatorial Re-run

THISDAY Model Portfolios Remain Bullish, Gain 24.7%

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President to appoint more ministers, heads of agencies

A move by some governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress to use the platform of the National Executive Council of the party to endorse President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term failed on Tuesday.

The APC NEC is the second highest decision-making body of the party after the national convention.

Signs of what was in the offing became apparent early in the day as some governors known to be close allies of the President extended a campaign they began at an event organised by the Buhari Support Organisation in Abuja on Saturday.

In separate interviews with reporters at the APC National Secretariat, the venue of Tuesday’s NEC meeting, the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Owelle Rochas Okorocha; his  Plateau and Kebbi counterparts, Simon Lalong and Atiku Bagudu, respectively said only Buhari had what it would take to fly the party’s flag in 2019.

The governors spoke before the commencement of the NEC meeting. Lalong said all the governors had agreed to work towards the President’s re-election in 2019.

He said, Concerning the issue of sole ticket for Mr. President, I want to say that if Mr. President is performing, well-respected and carrying everybody along, all of us have resolved that we will work for him.

He then asked a rhetorical question, Do we have any other person that will challenge the President again? Whatever you call it, as far as we are concerned, we have one President and that is the ticket we will fly.

I want to assure you that you won’t see a wrangling party after the meeting. From now onwards, it will be focused governance from Mr. President and all the governors from the states. We have all resolved to support Mr. President.

His Kebbi State counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, who was also responding to a question on whether the governors had resolved to give the President an automatic ticket, said, “The performance of the President in the last two and half years suggests that if he wants to contest, l will certainly support him and l know that our party members feel the same about him.”

However, the governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, expressed a slightly different opinion.

While responding to a similar question, he said, “For anybody to preempt the consensus opinion of the people is to say the least not fair to the vision of our party.

I can tell you if there is anything that is clandestine, the President will not honour it. So, let’s wait and see as we embark on these meetings.

I believe the consensus and the preponderance of opinion of all party members will be what is good for this country and we have already known the will of this country, the future of this country as we are now as a country is associated with one person, who is impeccable, who has the greatest amount of integrity that you can find in any human being around; so, your guess is as good as mine.

Also speaking on the issue, Okorocha, who is also Imo State governor, said only a decision by President Buhari to contest the 2019 election could make him drop his personal presidential ambition.

He said, “If Mr. President wants to run for election, he will follow all the processes and if he is the person, we will all support him. In APC, there is no imposition of candidate.

If Buhari is running, I will allow that man to continue but if he is not running, I won’t sacrifice my Presidential ambition. Mr. President is showing the right leadership and taking the very right steps and there is reconciliation going on even with nobody talking about it. There is the spirit of reconciliation and people understand their role.

Our role is to make this party great and we are all trying to do that; but importantly, the governors have remained the pivot upon which this wheel of change has rotated so far. We have kept this party working and after this meeting, our congresses and convention will commence in the early part of next year and all party organs will be strengthened. We are in good mood and high spirits.

During the meeting proper, one of the party members moved a motion asking that a vote of confidence be passed in the President and that he should be endorsed as the party’s candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.

This however failed to sail through. The party members felt that considering the fact that aggrieved members had yet to be pacified, doing so would escalate tension in the party and adversely affect its chances.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, confirmed this while speaking to newsmen after the NEC meeting.

He explained that the Tuesday’s NEC meeting was not about the 2019 elections but that there was a motion asking that first, a vote of confidence be passed in the President and then he should be endorsed as the party’s candidate for the 2019 election.

Dogara said, “Today’s meeting was not about 2019 elections. When we talk about 2019 in the context of the agenda you saw, we are talking about membership registration, the drive for membership and others. We are not talking about elections.

Even though there was a motion on the floor that called for a vote of confidence in the President, some of us felt it was not necessary because there is nowhere that his confidence is shaking.

But the motion was taken and passed. But there was a second leg to that motion which calls for the adoption of the candidature of the President, but it was deferred for now and no decision was taken because that is not the major reason why we are here.”

He further explained that the party had yet to agree on a date for its inaugural bi-annual national convention because details were still being worked out.

The Speaker noted that some of the grievances expressed by party members were normal in every family.

He stressed that there was no family without its internal squabbles; and noted the challenges were being handled and would soon be resolved.

Similarly, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, explained that a member of the party’s NEC made a move for a confidence vote in the President after a briefing by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, about the activities of his ministry.

Abdullahi said, “One of the NEC members said we should move a motion passing a vote of confidence in Mr. President. There was no formal motion moved on the issue of second term for Mr. President.

Somebody in the crowd shouted that we should move a motion and we don’t even know that member. But the motion that was formally moved was that NEC should pass a vote of confidence in Mr. President and that was after the brief given by the Minister of Agriculture, especially when he said that by 2018, Nigeria would have no need to import a single grain of rice. That is the context and I need you to understand that very well.”

He added, “The only discussion or conversation on 2019 was the activity of the party in 2018, especially the issue of convention. It was agreed that since we have all these activities lined up, including the mini-convention, congresses and elective convention, a small team be set up to put dates to these party activities up to 2018.

There was no discussion about election of 2019 or who will be the party flag bearer. The committee will decide when all these activities will take place.”

Abdullahi also said a vote of confidence was passed in the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun National Working Committee of the party.

Source : Punch