Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has declared that he is done with partisan politics, just as he dismissed claims making the rounds in the media that he is planning to float a new political party ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The former president, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media Affairs, Kehinde Akinyemi, said, “I’m done with partisan politics but by my position in Nigeria and in Africa and without being immodest and indeed in the world my door must be opened and it is open to any individual or group of individuals who want to seek my opinion, view, or advice on any issue or matter and I will respond to the best of my ability, without being part of that individual or group”.

Obasanjo, who stated this in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a guest of President Ashraf Ghani, also warned those who want to use the back door to force him to return to partisan politics to respect his choice to remain a non-partisan statesman.

The former Nigerian leader assured that he will continue to perform his role with a focus on providing counsel, support, or solutions wherever possible in Nigeria, Africa, and indeed the world.

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Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one man whose life and legacy in business and politics continue to be a source of attraction for many of us.

It is that time again when the world celebrates his birthday and as usual, several annual events have been ongoing in that direction

According to INEC, Youth – 18 and 35 years – constitute the highest number of voters with 51.11 percent at 42,938,458 voters.

This means that out of the 84 million registered voters in Nigeria today, 51.11% were either unborn or were kids in 1993 when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came into limelight.

Perhaps, this 69th birthday is a good time to tell the youths a bit about their history, which is incomplete without this man we love to call by one his several traditional titles – Jagaban.

From the private sector, Tinubu won the 1993 election as the Senator representing Lagos West constituency on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The military take-over in December 1993 set our generation back and destroyed what was going to be Nigeria’s smoothest return to democratic government.

I met Asiwaju during the SDP days. While he won the election in Lagos state as a senator, I also won the election as House of Reps member from Oyo state then as a 30-year-old man.

Since then, the relationship has blossomed. He is a leader, a mentor and an inspiration to me and several of us who have learned a lot from his leadership style.

When the Third Republic hit the rocks, thanks to Abacha, Senator Tinubu, along with several other heroes in exile, with the NADECO movement, fought the military government for the mandate of the winner of the presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola to be restored.

We lost the battle to have Abiola sworn in as president because in 1998 the great man died, but NADECO never lost the war. In 1999, Nigeria returned to what we now enjoy as our longest ever run of democratic leadership.

Tinubu was elected governor of Lagos state on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and created the master plan for today’s Lagos – Nigeria’s only true metropolitan mega city.

The test of his ingenuity came in 2003 during the general elections when he contested for a second term.

His fellow AD governors from the southwest had aligned with then President Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP to secure his second term in office.

After delivering their states in the presidential election, they all lost their governorship elections and PDP took over their states. Only Governor Bola Tinubu was unbeatable. He won his election and remained in office for two terms.

We all saw that there was more to this man than just his generosity, he was also a political genius.

After the political crash-landing, Tinubu’s doggedness saw to the rebuilding of the progressive movement in the southwest and it dawned on many that the Yoruba race might have unearthed a true leader they had needed since Obafemi Awolowo.

Tinubu ensured that the southwest remained relevant in all political permutations at the federal level.

Only few Nigerians will forget his tenacity during that epic battle with the Obasanjo government that stood against the creation of LCDAs in Lagos. For Tinubu, the development of his people was more important than anything else.

Still wondering why his fame grew beyond his generation? Wondering why he is loved and idolized by millions of Nigerian youths? He defines his leadership by the number of people he has empowered.

The day he amazed me was at the end of his tenure as Lagos state governor in 2007, when he sacrificed his ambition to return to the Senate and relinquished the senatorial ticket to Ganiyu Solomon to make peace within the party.

This is what true leaders do. This culture of sacrifice, loyalty, compromise for common good and selflessness is why Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has remained not just relevant but pivotal to Nigeria’s democracy.

This is why he remains one of the biggest icons of modern democracy in Nigeria and indeed the African continent.

Rilwan Adesoji Akanbi represented Oyo South Senatorial District between 2015 and 2019.

The post Bola Tinubu: His Legendary Exploits, Politics And Leadership first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Paradox, in the sense that many of the narratives associated with this expressway are weird, inconsistent with what obtains elsewhere and symbolize a wisdom which only Nigerian runners of government have access to. A 127.6-kilometre-long (79.3 mi) expressway which connects Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State and Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and major artery into the northern, southern and eastern parts of Nigeria, it is the oldest expressway in Nigeria.

Awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria and Reynolds Construction Company Limited at an initial cost of 167 billion Nigerian Naira or $838,986,290, the construction was divided into two sections for the two companies to handle. While Berger handles 43.6 km stretch of the road, to wit the Lagos to Shagamu portion, RCC is saddled with the rest, which is Sagamu to Ibadan. Commissioned in August, 1978 by then Major General Olusegun Obasanjo, the expressway has conveniently morphed into a bottomless pit for consumption of cash, a potential cesspit of political corruption if a klieg is peered into it and a wisdom gourd which only runners of Nigeria have access to.

This wisdom gourd reminds me of a famous Yoruba folktale. By the way, in folkloric tales of Yorubaland which seem to have died the moment modernity meandered into the world, Tortoise and Snail play very central roles and representations. While Tortoise represents trickery, craftiness and greed, Snail represents smartness, alertness and native wisdom. On occasions where Tortoise and Snail spar in exhibition of wisdom, while Tortoise meets its waterloo, Snail excels. In their denotations, Yoruba preach the wisdom of the Snail and abhor the Tortoise signifier. Indeed, in one of their proverbs, they say that no matter how Tortoise thinks he is clever, he is outshone by the Snail, rendered as gbigbon ti ahun gbon, ehin l’o nto’gbin.

As is usual with the Siamese nature of riddles and folklores, riddles are always appetizers for the central folklore stories. Thus, this particular storyteller begins by asking, “Who can tell me the two tiny birds which effortlessly climb two hundred trees simultaneously?” When one of the children listeners, apparently the most brilliant one among them, replies that it is the eyes, then the storytelling begins.

Here it goes: Upon waking up one certain morning, centuries ago, Tortoise was consumed with the bother about how he could outwit the rest of the world. He then agreed with himself that he needed to acquire the whole of the wisdom existing in the whole world, so that no living being would be as wise as he was. To achieve this, Tortoise then began the process of acquisition of global knowledge. He walked all over the place to seek it. Holding a clay pot in his hands, his plan was that, whenever he found a shell of wisdom, he would drop it inside the clay pot. By the end of the week, Tortoise had succeeded in acquiring the total wisdom of the world. He was excited and celebrated this immensely. Then, wary of someone else appropriating this knowledge from him, he thought of where to warehouse the huge corpus of wisdom, away from access to other human beings.

Then, the tallest palm tree in the village came to his mind. With the clay pot tied to his chest, off he began to climb the tree. As he was about getting to the mouth of the tree, his legs slipped and the pot came crashing down. Totally downcast, he repeated the process thrice, with same result. As he did the third time, a villager watched him and counseled that his backside, rather than his chest, was where to tie the clay pot containing global wisdom. Persuaded to climb the tree again, Tortoise was almost at the top of the tree when he angrily threw the pot away. The moral intended by the framers of this folklore is that wisdom is communal and social which should not be restricted to personal usage.

No one can contest the fact that the Lagos/Ibadan expressway boasts of the hugest traffic in Nigeria. As the busiest inter-state route in the country with over 250,000 Passenger Car Unit (PCU) the largest of such in Africa, its construction was with an eye on it withstanding heavy volume of vehicle traffic, especially vehicles with high axle loads. Contract for its reconstruction was begun by former President Goodluck Jonathan in July, 2013 and the aim of its reconstruction was to shrink the time of travel for millions of commuters who travel on it daily. Since then, the road has witnessed several stasis and hiccups. Again, the Federal Executive Council approved an additional N80bn for the purpose of rehabilitating Section II of the Expressway which fell on the Sagamu to Ibadan axis. On several occasions, work had stalled embarrassingly on a number of occasions on the construction due largely to funding discrepancies.

Funding of the project initially became an issue. Concessioned to Bi-Courtney of Wale Babalakin, it was eventually terminated in a messy separation. The concession was initially for 25 years, for construction and maintenance of 105-kilometre expressway. A private finance initiative, it was expected that this would see the reconstruction through, providing 70% of the funds needed, with the Federal Government providing the rehabilitation of 30% of the cost. 

In 2016, the Infrastructure Bank Plc and Motorways Asset Limited was said to have secured the sum of N170 billion funding for the reconstruction of the expressway, through public-private partnership. This caused uproar in the parliament as its desirability became a subject of discussion.

In 2017, the year of its initial scheduled completion, before its postponement, while President Muhammadu Buhari was on medical vacation to the UK, his government, represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, requested a virement of the sum of N135.6bn into what it called “other pressing sub-heads” in the 2017 budget. Lawmakers subsequently reduced allocation to the road construction from N31billion to N10billion.

This necessitated the two contractors suspending work on the road, even as they cited mounting unpaid debts to them by the Federal Government.

As it is now, the Federal Government seems to appropriate and approximate all the wisdom of the world in one single pouch in the funding of the road construction. Earlier, it had announced that a #321million it recovered from late former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, would be spent on the same project. Recently, it again announced that it was going to deploy the £4.2m loot recovered from James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, to fund three infrastructural projects, the Lagos–Ibadan, Abuja–Kano expressway and the second Niger bridge. The loot was seized from Ibori in 2012 after his conviction for fraud and money laundering by a UK court.

Many have argued that government should return the loot to the purse from where it was initially filched. The House of Representatives also recently directed government to stop its plan to spend the Ibori loot on the road, kicking against FG keeping the money. Dilemma in argument arose when such line of argument was reminded that Delta had, during the pendency of Ibori’s trial, claimed that no money was stolen from its purse.

Rather than manifesting, exhibiting and walking on the road of this Tortoise-wisdom-of-the-world, FG should let Nigerians know how much has been expended thus far, since 2013, on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway and how much is still needed. This nebulous voting of looted funds into the road construction, which leaves the actual figures spent shrouded in mystery and the fact that the true spending so far on the expressway exists solely in the mind of government, bears acute resemblance to Tortoise’s wily attempt to make the wisdom of the world resident solely in his head.

The post James Ibori, Lagos/Ibadan expressway and FG’s tortoise wisdom | By Festus Adedayo first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post James Ibori, Lagos/Ibadan expressway and FG’s tortoise wisdom | By Festus Adedayo appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Oyo state governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde and the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were on Thursday visibly absent at the launch of a book titled ‘Adedibu, the strongman and generalissimo of Nigerian politics’, in honour of a prominent leader of the party, late Chief Lamidi Adedibu.

The  local government Caretaker Chairmen in the state, including Ibadan Southwest local government council boss, failed to attend the book launch  chronicling the reign of the late political strategist, Adedibu as they were conspicuously absent.

While the governor failed to attend, he sent his Chief of Staff, Chief Bisi Ilaka.

At the launch in Ibadan, Governor Makinde was officially invited and scheduled to play a major role, according to Mega Icon Magazine sources.

The book which was co-authored by former Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Hazeem Gbolarumi and Chief Lekan Saka, had in attendance, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who wrote the forward and also delivered the keynote address, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala; Senator Teslim Folarin; Chief of Staff to Oyo State Governor, Bisi Ilaka; Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji, former Secretary to the Oyo state government, Chief Olayiwola Olakojo, Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan, Alhaji Yekini Abass , Engr. Remi Oseni, Hon. Ademola Ige, among others.

The absence of Governor Makinde, Oyo state chapter of the PDP and local government council chiefs fueled speculations that there is a frosty relationship between the governor and the organisers of the event.

Curiously, Governor Makinde had earlier played host to former President Obasanjo at the Governor’s office on Thursday, who later attended the event.

Confidential  sources in the government told our reporter that the governor, who was in town, deliberately stayed away from the book launch. They stressed that Governor Makinde has come under serious criticism lately over alleged poor treatment of party members, alleging that the governor had stylishly abandoned the core party faithful who supported his ambition, especially the late Adedibu’s camp.

Speaking  at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo described  the late PDP leader as an honest politician, who left good legacies.

According to Obasanjo, the late Adedibu helped the PDP to win the governorship in Oyo State when he was the president.

Obasanjo stated that he learnt many lessons from late Adedibu who he said would put any money given to him on the table and asked his followers to share it.

The ex-President said that was why Adedibus’ loyalists never left him at anytime. He said he would not fail to do anything he promised to do.

However, some politicians loyal to the late Adedibu have faulted Governor Makinde’s action, describing it as unnecessary. They recalled that Chief Abosede Adedibu, wife of the late political godfather encouraged them to work for Governor  Makinde’s emergence in the last election, thus expecting the governor to replicate such gesture by honouring the invitation.

The post Makinde, Oyo PDP, others shun Adedibu’s book launch in Ibadan first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Auntie Lutfat (now Prophetess Omonike), is the first grandchild of my paternal grandmother who took care of many of us in the 70s and early 80s. Tall, elegant and brilliant, Asake was equally tough and she would never take nonsense from anybody as a young lady. She had a good knowledge of Ibadan municipality and anybody she chose to take out would be overwhelmed with joy in those days. For some natural reasons, I was not always lucky to be considered for her town cruising serenades but my own luck shone on 30th day of September, 1979.

It was the eve of change of government from the military leadership of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to the newly-elected civilian administration of Alh. Sheu Shagari. Apprehension, uncertainty and palpable fear had enveloped the whole of the country and Ibadan, the capital of the young Oyo State was not an exception. Ibadan was also an epicentre of the bloodshed which characterized the January 15, 1966 first military coup in the country and only a few people trusted the military boys to hand over to Shagari on October 1, 1979 as promised.

This explained the frenzy situation on the eve of that date.

My family relocated to the city in early 1978 from our remote settlement in Owobaale via Erunmu and our new site was somewhere around Bishop Phillips Academy, Iwo Road, Ibadan. Family Houses in Oke-Adu, Ita Baale and Ile Emu at Oje were the places we use to visit once a while up till the time we became adults.

However, it used to be a thing of joy anytime an older person wanted to take us to see life in the central parts of the metropolis. Baba Liadi Adesokan Alao was the second son of my paternal grandma who meant so much to me. He was a security guard at St. Mary Catholic Primary School, Ratibi until his death in 1982 and he lived (with his family of six) around Oke’badan area.

My joy knew no bound on that fateful Sunday (30/9/1979) when Auntie Molara take me and another cousin, Folasade (of blessed memory), along as she planned to visit Oke’badan. Maami, maami… Anti Monike ni ki n kalo si odo Baba l’Okebadan. I rushed down to my mom to break the good news to her and pronto, she quickly dressed me up. She bathe me in the public glare for all I cared, mopped up the droplets of water on my body and then ‘painted’ me with our cherished Pomade body cream. I put on my best Alokowe dress which was a flexible ‘bosikoro’ round neck long sleeve butter colored shirt and a pair of trousers on a rubber sandal… Igboro’badan ya!

I cannot possibly remember how we managed to get to Agodi Gate from Academy-Monatan. Auntie carried Sade on one hand and used her second hand to hold me tightly as we navigated through the crowd of people who were in a haste to reach their respective destinations in time before any eventuality as anticipated ahead of the October 1, 1979 inauguration of a civilian government in the country. We later got to a place called Idi Ogungun and Auntie had to release my hand as she wanted to point to a tree under which my father was plying his trade as a Watch repairer.

“Wasiu, nibeun ni Baa-mi-re ti n se Aago”, Auntie Monike echoed as she pointed her finger towards the direction of the tree. I could not be satisfied with a look at that direction and I continued to behold the sight of the whole place having been given an opportunity to look round round.

Unfortunately, my elder cousin who had released my hand felt I was following her from behind after the ‘looking opportunity’ and she continued to trek towards the mini park where commercial Liteace buses plying Oke’badan were lined up. She got to the bus ‘on turn’ and tried to lift me up into it but I was nowhere to be found. Immediately, she began to scream; ” Omo-olomo da? Omo-olomo da?” With heavy teardrops rolling down from her eyes, she headed back to where she had asked me to look at the tree. She met me at the same point where I was still enjoying the opportunity to watch a mammoth crowd live. Auntie got to me and in annoyance, she descended on me with some dirty slaps and military kicks. I fell flat on my face and she began to drag me on the sandy floor… May God never subject me to such torturous experience again in my life. It was since then I have learned never to be carried away in the midst of a crowd again.

At a point, she decided to allow me stand on my feet and we continued our movement towards Oke’badan while sobbed repeatedly as she would not stop twisting my earlobes and knocking my head every 120 seconds.

Eventually, we got to Uncle’s house and as it was his practice when he saw me, he starting chanting our lineage panegyrics thus; “Adeyemi n le… Omo Aresa, dudu l’egbon pupa l’aburo… Omo s’eni-un-o-s’eni ni b’Iresa nnu, bo’le o bu’po ni ya’mode l’ara… Ara’lu òpe, omo amúronà s’aju eegun, omo ol’ode àjígbá, omo abesin kan kóri, omo asojetan s’oloosa… Abbl. Uncle drew me closer to himself and observed something was wrong.

He asked; “Monike, se o na omo yi ni?”… “Rara o, o subu funra re ni o”, Auntie replied and I could not stand it at this juncture… I bursted into tears uncontrollably. Uncle who he was and castigated her heavily. He could not trust her again and had to return me home by himself.

About 27 years after (precisely on April 7, 2006), Auntie played into my hands and I was able to take my own pound of flesh. She dared me in the public and received the worst beating of her life. Before you would pass any judgment on me for being ‘vindictive or unforgiving’, pray to have a personal experience what she did to me the second time. However, we have since reconciled and we are now good friends. But I’m grateful to her for teaching me never to be lost into a crowd again in my life.

Wasiu Olawale Sadare, Journalist and Media Consultant writes from Ibadan, Oyo state

The post September 30 | By Olawale Sadare first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post September 30 | By Olawale Sadare appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Obasanjo spoke on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, during the official inauguration of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Kalambo research station in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the country’s President, Felix Tshisekedi. The research station is named “The President Olusegun Obasanjo Research Station”, in honor of the ex-President who is also the IITA Goodwill Ambassador.

Giving a shoplist of crops the gover“The first crop to take is cassava… The second crop is soybean because it is very important for human nutrition and livestock. The next is cowpea and lastly plantain. If we invest in these crops, we will be able to reduce the $50bn that Africa is spending annually on importing food,” Chief Obasanjo said.

The former president underlined the importance of research to agricultural transformation, citing the Nigerian example where his administration was able to raise cassava production by 20 million tons during his eight year-tenure.

He commended Dr Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General for his leadership, and the institute (IITA) for its excellent research in addressing the problems facing Africa.

The IITA ambassador congratulated President Tshisekedi for providing the enabling environment and support to IITA to establish the centre, stating that he felt deeply honored to be part of it.

At the inauguration were Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB); Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde; and the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, among others.

Dr Sanginga  said the research station was in dedication to IITA and its partners’ mission of fighting hunger and poverty in Africa and would contribute towards boosting agricultural productivity in DR Congo and the region.

“The station is a symbol of our dedication and commitment to building the research and development capacity in DR Congo and the Great Lakes,” he said.

He reiterated the importance of research to agricultural transformation and cited the progress made by Nigeria in cassava to the role of research innovations developed by IITA and its partners.

The IITA Director for the Central African Region, Dr Bernard Vanlauwe added that the lab building was built in record time using modern methods and materials.

“Indeed, the first stone was placed in October 2017 and the building completed in 18 months. This speed and efficiency symbolize the nature of the activities taking place in the lab, namely the rapid and large-scale production of healthy planting materials of crops of key importance to the DRC as well as the production of bio-fertilizers to ensure the growth and quality of these crops,” he explained.

For many years, the station in Kalambo operated in project mode but in 2011, the IITA Board of Trustees decided to elevate it to become the focal point of the Institute’s regional hub for natural resource management in the Great Lakes. It now also features a first-class tissue culture lab for the vegetative multiplication of cassava, banana, coffee, yam, and potato.

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Insinuations are rife that the recent directive that all agencies hitherto under Osinbajo should report directly to President Muhammadu Buhari are symptoms of a divorce notice of a marriage held together by the un-enduring glue of politics. Media reports said that the directive was a mere smokescreen for a more grievous crucifix that has been erected for the Vice President.

There is no denying the fact that Osinbajo appeared on the outwards, in the midst of the general bad impression of governance of the Buhari government, as a poster-boy of how government should be run. Whatever those who seek his decimation may bring up as his Achilles’ heel, what is trending in the media as their grouse against him are the few governmental achievements that can be ascribed to the Buhari government

For instance, the sacking of Lawal Daura as Director-General of Department of State Services on August 7, 2018 and appointment of Walter Onnoghen as substantive Chief Justice of the Federation by Osinbajo as Acting President, until revelations of the latter’s litany of wrongs in the judiciary started creeping in, were two of the actions of this government that are lauded by the people. That the allegations of moves against him possess colourations of corruption are however the point at which the so-called cabal who want Osinbajo’s head on a platter may be justified if the allegations are proved.

It is not because he shares same ethnicity with people like us but the penchant of vultures of power in Nigeria to decide the fates of their victims and begin the process of roasting their flesh, even as they search for tinder to barbecue their meat, should be frowned at.

Many of the allegations against Osinbajo are said to have spanned the immediate years of the ascendancy of the Buhari presidency.

Why did the pallbearers earmarked to carry Osinbajo’s political remains keep mum since that time but now feel it is time to singe his flesh?I pray that the whole media blitz of attempt to crucify the Vice President is not true after all.

If it is, it will be another bitter lesson to Southern faggots of power who are used to roast their own people. Mr MKO Abiola – God rest his soul – realized this too late. Olusegun Obasanjo realized too, rather late.

Many others did too. Osinbajo will by now be realizing that loyalty and dedication to one’s nativity and one’s people are a core necessity that precedes loyalty to Nigeria.

Nigeria is a vague construct and literally does not exist. It is like the case of the proverbial squirrel which turned deaf ears to wise counsel but lies prostrate in the hunter’s plate of soup.

The elders ask, as riposte to the squirrel allegory: a child warned by elders of dangers ahead should heed wise counsel.

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Contained in a statement made available to Mega Icon Magazine at the weekend in response to President Obasanjo’s latest tirade, Adekunle asked rhetorically “How can a man who used federal forces to remove 3 governors, sent the military to level two Nigerian towns, engineered the removal of several Senate Presidents for not doing his bidding, initiated an illegal third term bid, withheld Lagos funds in spite of Supreme Court judgements among other infractions turn round and accuse a President who didn’t do any of these of things of being like Abacha and expect reasonable people to take him seriously?”

Adekunle, who is also one of the spokespersons of the Professor Yemi Osinbajo (PYO) Support Group, asserted that “Baba Obasanjo is a man I respect a lot but it is common knowledge in Yorubaland that any elder who ties maize to his backside risks being mocked by fowls”

According to him, “the next election is essentially a battle amongst those who see Nigeria as an extension of their estate represented by Obasanjo and his co travellers on one hand and the poor who have benefited immensely from the Buhari administration on the other hand.”

Adekunle, however expressed confidence in the current administration assuring Nigerians that Buhari/Osinbajo’s electoral victory will, by God’s Grace in February, demystify the power mongers and their allies who have held the country by the jugular for so long.

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Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo will chair activities of the Nigeria Zero Hunger Forum’s meeting in Sokoto state today.

The two-day meeting in Sokoto, which begins on Wednesday, will afford participating states in Nigeria the opportunity to peer review one another, particularly on achievements and steps taken so far since 2016 to bring about zero hunger.

The peer review tool is being adopted by state governments in Nigeria as part of efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Since the launch of the sustainable Development Goals in 2015, Nigeria’s former president has been in the forefront, advocating for home-grown policies and strategies to contain hunger and poverty in Nigeria.

Working with the World Food Program, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Development Bank, the former president led the development of the Nigeria Zero Hunger Strategic Review detailing what Nigeria needed to do to achieve zero hunger by 2025.

The Strategic Review Document was adopted with 6 pilots states—Benue, Borno, Ebonyi, Ogun, Kebbi and Sokoto—signing on for a peer review process.

Chief Obasanjo said his ambition is to support Nigeria to win the fight against hunger and poverty.

The meeting in Sokoto will attract members of the diplomatic corps, donors, development partners and farmers.

Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General (Partnerships for Delivery) at IITA commended the Sokoto state government for the preparations made so far in hosting the meeting.

“We are excited to see that Sokoto is ready for the peer review process,” Dr Dashiell added.

In the last three weeks, Dr Dashiell and the Local organizing Committee set up by the state government under the leadership of the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Bashir Garba made visits to project sites across the state to understand the concrete steps being taken by the government to address hunger and poverty.

The two-day meeting will comprise meetings and presentations and field visits to give participants a feel of the efforts being made by Sokoto State toward eradication of hunger.

Located in the North West  part of Nigeria, Sokoto has rich agricultural potential in the areas of crop and animal production. The state is predominantly an agrarian state.

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Top sources in the know, who confided in Mega Icon Magazine, also disclosed that the party will start flooding the state with billboards and posters to launch the new political platform.

This development is coming on the heels of the alleged unresolved crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by Governor Abiola Ajimobi, the sources informed.

Checks also revealed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar may adopt the ADP as an alternative platform to further his presidential aspiration in the event of not picking the PDP ticket.

Akande, who is a prominent member of the ‘Unity Forum’ – a splinter group within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), had earlier declined joining the African Democratic Congress (ADC) because of its chief promoter, ex President Olusegun Obasanjo

https://iso.keq.mybluehost.me/university-don-laments-npower-school-feeding-programs-as-buharis-unsung-achievements/

“Some members of the Unity Forum are now in the ADC, while few members are already returning to the APC. But Akande deliberately rejected ADC because of his cordial relationship with Atiku”, Mega Icon Magazine sources hinted further.

Professor Akande, who hails from Otu in Itesiwaju Local Government Area of Oke-Ogun in Oyo state bagged his doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan over 20 years ago. He had earlier obtained his M.Sc and B.Sc (2nd Class Upper) in 1990 and 1987 respectively in the same institution.

https://iso.keq.mybluehost.me/osinbajos-aide-attacks-jonathans-govt-releases-more-evidence-of-corruption/

He was appointed Deputy Chief Press Secretary to the Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2001. He later became a Special Assistant (Research & Communication Strategies) to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2003. In 2011 he was appointed the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Oyo State, Governor Isiaka Ajimobi.

Professor Akande is a truly bred Town-and-Gown, an Academic, Scholar, Social Scientist, Researcher and Public Administrator. Apart from being stylish, intelligent and strategic; he has brilliant ideas towards Oyo state development and has started his underground campaign.

By Idowu Ayodele

The post Oyo Guber Race: Akande to Contest Under ADP Ticket first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Oyo Guber Race: Akande to Contest Under ADP Ticket appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.