Politics
Significance of President Tinubu’s Enugu Visit
By Tunde Rahman
President Bola Tinubu’s one-day visit to the Southeast, his first of 2025, was not just a routine event. It was laden with symbolisms, from the enthusiastic reception to the subsequent positive comments. The import of this visit, with its many remarkable aspects, was not lost on anyone. While many have spoken favourably and commended the visit, it equally throws up some questions.
Is President Tinubu’s January 4, 2025 visit to Enugu, the old capital of the Southeast region, during which he inaugurated Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s landmark projects and made important pronouncements a new level in his relationship with the Southeast geopolitical zone?
Is the President’s visit across the Niger a game changer and a subtle indicator of what lies ahead between him and the people of the South East?
The Southeast’s posture towards President Tinubu has not been enthusiastic, just as it was with President Muhammadu Buhari. Of course, the results of the 2015, 2019, and 2023 elections reveal the political aloofness of the zone towards the two leaders.
The Southeast was particularly lukewarm towards Tinubu’s presidential aspiration following developments in the build-up to the 2023 presidential election and the results that had arisen from it. In the run-up to the election, the Southeast put all its political eggs in the basket of homeboy Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor, who had broken ranks with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to emerge as the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate.
The boisterousness of the Obidients –as Peter Obi’s supporters had christened themselves – had somewhat captured the imagination of the Southeast. Any Igbo who sang a different tune in the 2023 election was, more or less, seen as an outcast.
Peter Obi himself did not allow the kind of amity that should prevail. He campaigned based on his Igbo ethnicity and overtly promoted his Christian faith to reap electoral benefits. When the election came, the Igbo voted en masse for him, signposting a strong correlation between region, religion and elections in Nigeria.
As a geopolitical breakdown of the 2023 presidential election results shows, Obi and his LP polled 1,952, 998 votes from the five states of the Southeast, representing a massive 89.62% of the total votes in the region. President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress polled 127,370 votes, a paltry 5.85% of the votes from the area while the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, got 90, 698 votes, amounting to a meagre 4.16%.
Although Obi recorded impressive results outside the Southeast, like winning Lagos, Nasarawa, Edo, Delta, Plateau, Cross River, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, his 2023 presidential challenge was essentially a Southeast affair.
After the election, he and his ethnic supporters remained in their cocoons—or the alternate reality they had built. They acted like Obi had won the poll but denied victory. It seemed that the Obidients would rather not hear the name Asiwaju Tinubu, let alone President Tinubu. This trend continued even after Obi’s petition against President Tinubu’s victory in court failed. Any move of the President was criticised and condemned.
On assumption of office, President Tinubu made overtures to the zone in key appointments such as the appointment of Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, who hails from Enugu, and through key ministerial appointments like those of Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi from Ebonyi State, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Hon. Uche Nnaji, and the first Minister of Trade and Investment, now Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, among others.
Remarkably, when the President reshuffled his cabinet in October last year, he brought in, among others, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, wife of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. She got the portfolio of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. President Tinubu also established the Southeast Development Commission, a significant move to promote and accelerate the region’s development.
A top journalist who is a friend from the Southeast zone and a staunch Obidient who had never masked his dislike for Tinubu said those two appointments were sufficient to forgive President Tinubu’s perceived sins against the Igbo.
It was against that background that President Tinubu accepted Governor Mbah’s invitation to inaugurate some of his projects in the New Year.
At the inauguration of Governor Mbah’s projects and during an interactive session with Southeast leaders, President Tinubu made significant statements that gladdened the hearts of the Igbo.
At the inauguration of the Command and Control Center, the President emphasised the importance of cooperation and collaboration between the Federal Government and the sub-nationals to drive development. (Thisday)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised the Senator David Mark-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The decision of the electoral body to publish the name of Mark and Aregbesola-led NWC on its portal followed the judgement of the Supreme court which restored the Mark-led NWC.
Recall that in April, the commission, citing the order of the Court of Appeal, deleted the names of Mark-led NWC on its website.
The electoral body said it would not receive any further communication or deal with any of the parties or groups pertaining the affairs of the party and would not monitor any meeting, Congress or Convention convened on behalf ADC by any group until the matter is decided by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The commission stressed that its decision was to ensure it does not act in any way capable of foisting a fait accompli on the court or otherwise rendering nugatory the proceedings before the trial court.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) has formally assumed control of the party’s national leadership following the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated its recent convention, with BoT Chairman Adolphus Wabara declaring the move a constitutional necessity.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Wabara said the BoT stepped in “with the utmost sense of duty and responsibility” to prevent a leadership vacuum after the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He noted that the intervention was backed by the provisions of the party’s constitution.
“This constitutional intervention of the BoT is so as not to allow any leadership vacuum at the national level of our party,” he said.
Wabara explained that the apex court invalidated the PDP’s November 2025 national convention in Ibadan, which produced the Kabiru Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC).
He added that the court also upheld the suspension of key officials, including Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Umar Bature, and Kamaldeen Ajibade.
According to him, the implication of the judgment is far-reaching. “All actions taken by Senator Samuel Anyanwu… including the appointment of Abdulrahman Mohammed as Acting National Chairman… are illegal, null and ab initio void,” he stated.
He said the nullification of both the Turaki-led and Abdulrahman Mohammed-led structures effectively leaves the BoT as the highest functioning organ of the party.
“The statutory onus of leadership… now rests on the shoulders of the Board of Trustees,” Wabara added, citing the PDP constitution.
The BoT chairman announced that the body has “immediately assumed responsibility of the national working leadership of the PDP” as a remedial step to stabilize the party and promote reconciliation.
He further disclosed that an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting would be convened to appoint an interim National Working Committee to run the party’s affairs and ensure compliance with the Electoral Act ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wabara also directed all PDP staff to resume work at the party’s national secretariat under the BoT’s leadership pending the appointment of the interim leadership.
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He commended party stakeholders, including governors Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde, as well as other organs of the party, for their resilience during the crisis.
Calling for unity, Wabara urged members to set aside personal interests and work together. “The PDP has suffered enough… The time has come for us to make sacrifices, sheathe our swords and embrace genuine reconciliation,” he said, warning that the crisis has ultimately affected Nigerians who look to the party for leadership.
The Supreme Court has vacated the order that directed the the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the determination of its leadership crisis.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel headed by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, held that the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal acted beyond its jurisdiction by unilaterally issuing such an order after it had already dismissed a case that was brought before it by one of the factions.
“Giving such an order in an appeal it had already dismissed was unnecessary, unwarranted and improper,” the Supreme Court held.
It held that the appeal that was filed before it by Senator David Mark succeeded in part, even as it dismissed the aspect that challenged an ex parte order the Federal High Court made for service of processes in the suit filed by aggrieved members of the party.
The apex court directed the factions to return to the trial court for continuation of hearing of the case.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had removed Mark and Rauf Aregbesola from its portal and website as ADC National Chairman and Secretary, respectively, on April 1, citing the Court of Appeal’s judgment.
The electoral body said it would, in line with the order for maintenance of the status quo ante bellum, not recognise any of the warring factions until the legal dispute is determined.
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