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2027: Obi, Obidients not our concern now – Onanuga
…accuses Obi of introducing dangerous passions to Nigerian politics
President Bola Tinubu’s administration has said it will not allow the thought or activities of the followers of the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election, Peter Obi, distract it from its focus on governance.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Ononuga, who stated this during an interview aired on Mic On Podcast, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye, also accused Obi of introducing a dangerous slant to the Nigerian politics by deploying religious and ethnic passions in his campaigns.
Followers of Obi, also known as the Obidients, have been known to be passionate and most times rude and abrasive, especially on various social media platforms, to other citizens not sharing their views and ideology. They have also been most antagonistic of the Tinubu administration.
However, reacting to a question on whether Obi’s politics and his followers, the Obidients, are capable of posing a threat to President Tinubu’s chances in 2027, Onanuga said the administration is currently very busy with governing Nigeria and has no time to entertain thoughts about 2027 politics for now.
“As of now, we are busy with governance and we don’t want our attention diverted from the focus of what the government is trying to do. We are very busy, we’re not even looking at them now”, he said.
Speaking about Obi’s political style at the last election, he said “what I know about the campaign of Obi was that for the first time in a very long while in our country, we had a candidate who was inflaming ethnic passion and that was the way the election went at that time, he was inflaming ethnic and religious passions, bringing two dangerous things to our politics; ethnicity and religion. That was what he did and those things were dangerous to our politics”.
Asked if he believed there are those who are out to intentionally sabotage the Tinubu administration, the Presidential Spokesman said “of course, it is very clear unless people are not perceptive. Up till now, some are still writing that Bola Tinubu stole the presidency and some people are saying that the man who came third actually won the election, and they are very unapologetic about that.
“How could somebody who came third how could he have won that election? You can even see when they were talking about the naira, some people were just happy that the Naira was going downhill. You can trace them. People who are saying so are members of the Obidient movement”, he asserted.
He debunked the belief in some quarters that President Tinubu also employed religious tactics, especially in his choice of a deputy, noting that the choice of Vice President Shettima was basically because of other qualities he is endowed with and not his religious persuasion.
He said: “If Asiwaju did that, he wouldn’t have lost Lagos”.
He said the Muslim/Muslim ticket of the APC at the polls “was not religious. You could see that the Muslim/Muslim ticket did not win him massive votes, let’s say in Borno, where his deputy came from. For the man he picked as his VP, he believe that Shettima has the qualities to be his vice president and that’s why he picked him, he was not looking at religion.
“Let me give you an incident. We went somewhere recently and we found out that most of the people in the media section of this government are actually Muslims. I was born a Muslim, but it was mere coincidence, when they were picking them, nobody was looking at their religion. Ditto,
“When President Tinubu was picking Shettima as his vice, he was picking Shettima, he was not looking at him as a Muslim. He was looking at Shettima, from the Northeast part of the country, who can add some values to his campaign, to his winning the Presidency.
“Shettima earned the vice presidency because of his contributions to that campaign, he was with him all the way, even before the primary. When you want to appoint someone to work with you, you have to count loyalty, it’s very vital. Even the quality of the person is also very important and you can see what Shettima has been doing; he’s loyal to the President and he has shown a lot of qualities as Vice President”, he said.
Asked to compare President Tinubu with his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, Onanuga said it would be too early to be drawing conclusions on performances as President Tinubu is barely a year in the saddle.
He also pointed out that the two leaders have their human differences and different ways of attending to issues, but noted that former President Buhari had been unfairly judged by many commentators, saying he tried his best for the country, especially in the area of infrastructure development and the enrichment of the legal system.
The United States Department of Homeland Security has added 10 Nigerians to its “Worst of the Worst” register, a database highlighting immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over alleged criminal offences.
The latest names were published on the official DHS website and include individuals linked to cases involving fraud, identity theft, drug offences, assault, conspiracy and offences involving children.
The 10 Nigerians listed in the latest update are:
Temitope Bashua — Wire fraud, identity theft and fraud — Allenwood, Pennsylvania
Ojehoro Lewis — Cruelty towards a child — Conroe, Texas
Osemudiamen Kingsley Oziegbe — Wire fraud — Louisville, Kentucky
Daniel Oworen — Dangerous drugs — Conroe, Texas
Raymond H. Ekevwo — Wire fraud — Oxford, Wisconsin
Franklin Dikeocha — Sex offence against a child – fondling — Dallas, Texas
Johnson Ogunlana — Fraud and identity theft — White Deer, Pennsylvania
Chukwuemeka Okorocha — Wire fraud, dangerous drugs, possession of a weapon and aggravated assault involving a non-family gun — Allenwood, Pennsylvania
Tunde Korede — Conspiracy — Allenwood, Pennsylvania
Chukwuemeka Chinye — Larceny from a banking-type institution, fraud, larceny, identity theft and conspiracy — Pollock, Louisiana
DHS said the register was established to draw attention to immigrants it describes as the “worst of worst criminal aliens” arrested by ICE.
“Every day, the patriots of ICE are working to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country. Just yesterday, ICE arrested murderers, pedophiles, kidnappers, and other violent criminals to make America safe again,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, there will be no safe haven for illegal aliens, including in sanctuary cities which put illegal aliens over their own citizens. We will never apologize for arresting and deporting illegal aliens, because that’s how we protect American lives.”
The department said the latest immigration enforcement actions were part of the Trump administration’s deportation policy.
“Under DHS leadership, the hardworking men and women of DHS and ICE are fulfilling President Trump’s promise and carrying out mass deportations – starting with the worst of the worst – including the illegal aliens you see here,” the department said.
The latest publication comes after DHS released another list in July containing 124 Nigerians arrested by ICE and identified on the same register.
The July list featured Nigerians associated with a range of criminal offences, although the department did not provide specific deportation dates for those individuals
…Orders CCTV installation to stop vandalism
The federal government on Friday announced the closure of the River Niger bridge for one week.
The closure is to carry out repairs on the vandalised sections of the River Niger bridge road and install security architecture in the area.
Minister for Works, Engr Dave Umahi, disclosed this at Ogbunike in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra during an inspection tour of the bridge and other roads under construction in the South East and South South geopolitical zones of the country.
The first River Niger Bridge linking Asaba and Onitsha
He said motorists would, at the closure of the bridge, be directed to the Second Niger Bridge in order to give the contractors an adequate time frame to carry out the necessary repairs.
Recall that suspected vandals had looted vital bolts and irons used in the construction of the bridge, thereby exposing the bridge to obvious collapse and, in the process, threatening the lives of millions of road users and passersby.
He explained that security measures are being taken to avert a repeat occurrence of vandalism on the bridge.
“Bridges are designed for light load and dynamic loads so we have directed that work should start immediately and the entire asphalt be removed and put another one and there will be solar lights on that bridge in the next one week and we shall fix CCTV and connect it to the one in the 2nd Niger Bridge so that security will observe and whoever that tries to touch the bridge again is going to be arrested.
“Now on the first Niger bridge, we have seen the wickedness of the underworld. We have seen the man’s inhumanity to man; those things that they are removing is very dangerous to the beauty of that bridge and we have commenced action on that bridge,” he said.
He added; “There Is so much accumulated workload on that bridge, like it was with the 3rd Mainland Bridge, and every government that comes will put asphalt, and it is causing a lot of gridlock on that bridge.
“So these are the actions that we have taken and then getting down we came to the Enugu – Onitsha express and they are working in three sections and there the Enugu -Onitsha and another one is 17.5 km and the last one is about 20km by two and so I have directed them not to start any asphalt work or concrete work so what they are to do is to take measurements of all the failed sections and it should be milled out and then use 16mm binder to cover them very well all the way from head bridge to 21.5 km and they will finish one carriage way before they go to the other one.
“We have to attempt to work at night so that we don’t interfere with traffic and we have to get the road safety involved and our own local traffic managers they should commence the desilting of the drainage before commencing.
“To that effect we may have to close down the first Niger bridge in seven days time and we direct traffic to the second Niger bridge for us to fix the first Niger bridge in good time,” he stated.
At the ongoing construction of the second Niger Bridge access road, Engr Timothy Emenike, Controller, and Engr Nnamdi explained that there would be no more slow pace of work on the project, adding that the project is being executed from both fronts in order to beat the deadline.
“The project starts from Obosi down to Mkpor and Ogidi and now we are in Ogbunike and along this alignment between the last time you came we are working on several stops along this alignment and you have just seen the second bridge that is ongoing and we are almost about to start the third one”.
“Work pace will not be a hindrance until we exhaust what was given to us by the Anambra state government and I am happy to inform you that since the new Commissioner took over we have been going to the new Commissioner’s office and have been pressuring him to give us more work space.”
According to him, in the next week we shall have another work space of 5km between Obosi axis, working from both ends.
“We are cutting through the hill at Ogbunike to continue the work in that area,” they stated.
Anambra State Commissioner for Works, Arc Okey Ezeobi, announced that the right of way being demanded by the contractors would be granted to them, adding that an additional 5km has been added to the contractors.
Ezeobi thanked President Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Engr Dave Umahi for providing democracy dividends for the people of Anambra and the South East.
He reiterated the support of the people of the state ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“There is no better way to describe this as a renewed hope and not fit saying it and the Hon Minister with what you are doing with our wonderful President for the first time Easterners can come in and move out with ease and the bottleneck they had been a great harassment and that is sending people out of the South East, has been taken care of.
“One can now bypass Onitsha, bypass Asaba and you are on your way.
“You don’t know how glad the people of Anambra and the South East is and thank Mr President for us.
“There is no way to ask for democracy dividend than this and that is when you have a visionary leadership tailored towards alleviating the sufferings of the masses.
“Mr President is developing every part of Nigeria and regarding the right of way for this project, we are finalizing it and we are adding another 5km to what we have now and there will be more than enough for the contractor to work with,” he added.
The family of The Eagle Online publisher, Dotun Oladipo, has announced September 10 and 11, 2026 as the dates for the funeral programmes of the journalist and media entrepreneur.
Oladipo died on Tuesday, August 25, at the age of 56.
According to the family, a service of songs will hold at DayStar Church, Oregun, Ikeja, on Thursday, September 10.
The burial service will take place at the same venue on Friday, September 11, followed by his interment.
Oladipo was president of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) from 2017 to 2021 and was among the foundational members who helped shape the association during its formative years.
GOCOP President, Danlami Nmodu, described his death as a painful loss to the Guild and recalled his contribution to the development of online publishing in Nigeria.Exploring African Diaspora Media
“Dotun played an important role in the development of GOCOP. He led the Guild for four years at a time when there was still a lot of work to be done to establish online publishers as an important part of the media. His contribution will always be remembered,” Nmodu said.
Nmodu said Oladipo brought his experience as a journalist and publisher to the leadership of the Guild.
“Dotun understood journalism and he understood the business of publishing. He was passionate about the place of online media in Nigeria and he gave his time to the growth of the Guild. We are saddened by his passing,” Nmodu said.
Oladipo was also a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the International Press Institute (IPI Nigeria), and was active in the development of Nigeria’s online publishing industry.
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