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Jonathan’s fate awaits you if you dismiss coalition, Suswam warns Tinubu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must gird his loin immediately and find way of confronting the dangers posed to his office by the political coalition being built against him or face the fate of Goodluck Jonathan, his last but one predecessor, who took the path of ignoring the same arrangement against him.
This was the advice of Gabriel Suswam, former Governor of Benue State, as he weighed in on the political development in the country, including the bitter feud within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where leadership tussle has kept the party on a tailspin since 2023.
Suswam, a guest of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, on Wednesday, described the planned opposition coalition would produce the party to beat in the 2027 elections, adding that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be worried.
Hear him: “This is not the first time you are going to have a scenario such as this. Nigerians, based on the economic policies of this administration, are very dissatisfied. There is no Nigerian that is not affected by the economic policies of this administration and so I believe that the coalition will be the party to beat, and so if I am in the ruling party I should be worried about it.”
The former governor spoke on the backdrop of Tinubu, dismissing the arrangement being put together by some opposition elements in the country, including Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, as well as Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai, former governors of Rivers and Kaduna States, respectively.
Tinubu, had last week, during the celebration of Democracy Day, on June 12, taunted the political parties in the country for being in disarray, saying they should put their houses in order rather than blaming him, while a week earlier, Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), dismissing the initiative of coalition as dead on arrival.
During his address to Nigerians on June 12, delivered on the floor of the National Assembly, the President, had said: “Political parties fearful of members leaving may be better served by examining their internal processes and affairs rather than fearfully conjuring up demons that do not exist. For me, I would say try your best to put your house in order. I will not help you do so. It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.”
Upping the ante on Wednesday, during his one-day visit to Nasarawa State, where he commissioned some “legacy projects,” Tinubu again went the same way of taunting the opposition, telling his audience: “Those who have triggered the early politics in the perdition of the coalition suddenly, don’t pay them any attention; they are the political IDPs. Don’t give them a home; the hope is here.”
But reacting to such dismissive attitude, Suswam, recalled how, as then Governor of Benue State, he and other PDP leaders had dismissed the opposition merger that led to the formation of the APC ahead of the 2015 elections, only for the party (PDP) to suffer the consequential defeat.
“We were doing the same thing when we were in government, we were dismissing APC then completely. People didn’t just give them any chance at all but they won that election. A lot of APC members are interested in the coalition.
“We are in June and we have six months until 2026. Around March and April 2026, full political activities would have started, the party that is not together and does not look like it will put itself together cannot be part of that (2027) elections. I don’t see the PDP coming out of this quagmire anytime soon, and I want to contest the election, so I wouldn’t want to waste my time waiting and imagining.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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