Ghana: NDC youth group ask Mahama to declare stance in national executive elections

The Congress to elect persons who will steer the affairs of the largest opposition party ahead of the 2020 general election has been slated for November 3.

BY - PULSEGHANA
The Young Democratic Forces, a pressure group within the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on former President John Dramani Mahama to openly declare where he stands in the party’s upcoming National Delegates’ Congress.

Some of the aspirants, according to YDF, in a desperate bid to clinch victory in the upcoming internal contest were going around constituencies with a campaign message that says “the former President, John Mahama has chosen specific aspirants to the national office who he can comfortably work with.”

In other words, the former President has his favourite candidates who he openly supports for national office.

In a petition to the former President, YDF warned that the trend if not addressed immediately will create massive division in the party after the national congress, hence the call on him to openly announce his stance.

“We sincerely want to believe that this is not truly coming from our highly respected and unifying former President. However, the phenomenon of fake news has come to stay and must be disclaimed with urgency to maintain our unity as a party after the party’s internal elections,” said YDF in the petition.

“It is our believe,” it continued, “that those forces spreading such divisive and misleading messages among delegates of the NDC are doing the NDC and its future Presidential candidate a great harm. And these people must, ther efore, be exposed now.

“It is in this regards that we the members of YDF humbly petition your Excellency to openly declare your neutrality as far as this Internal contest is concern to give a level playing grounds for aspirants to sell their message as the NDC’s Presidential candidate for the 2020 general election they will need the support of every NDC member and Ghanaians at large to recapture power.”

Nigeria: Osun Govt Declares Thursday Public Holiday For Workers

BY - SAHARAREPORTERS:
The public holiday was declared to "enable workers to participate in the rerun governorship election taking place in seven units in Ife-North, Ife-South, Orolu and Osogbo Local Government Areas of the State".

The Osun State Government has declared Thursday "work free" day for civil servants to participate in the supplementary governorship election.

Sola Fasure, media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, announced this in a statement issued to journalists in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

Fasure said the declaration is to allow the work force join other residents to exercise their franchise in the affected seven polling units where the election will hold.

The statement read: “The State Government of Osun has declared Thursday, September 27, 2018 a public holiday throughout the state.

“This is to enable workers to participate in the rerun governorship election taking place in seven units in Ife-North, Ife-South, Orolu and Osogbo Local Government Areas of the State.”

Thursday election would be a horse race between Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Nigeria: Current Leaders Don’t Have The Mental Capacity To Accommodate My Ideas, Says Sowore

BY - SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK:
"The kind of ideas we have, they don’t have the mental, intellectual and even physical capacity to accommodate them; particularly this administration that we are running," Sowore said.

Omoyele Sowore, presidential aspirant and leader of the TakeItBack Movement, has described the current crop of political leaders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as mediocre, bereft of new ideas or political will to move the country forward.

Sowore, who is also the Founder and Publisher of SaharaReporters, made this known when he spoke on the radio programme, 'The Roadshow', with controversial On-Air Personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, popularly known as Daddy Freeze, and Nsix on Cool 96.9 FM, Lagos on Tuesday.

While responding to questions on whether he would be willing to work and share his ideas with the ruling party, Sowore said: “It’s like asking if light can emerge from darkness. Who can you work with among these guys? None! The kind of ideas we have, they don’t have the mental, intellectual and even physical capacity to accommodate them; particularly this administration that we are running. This 'Babacracy' has no capacity to accommodate even one per cent of the ideas I have, because I am high on ideas and that is why people can relate with what I am saying.

“You cannot find the accommodation of those kinds of ideas within an administration where the government may not even know where it stands as we speak. He is just cannon fodder that the cabal is hiding behind to do whatever they want to do, because they are not responsible for anything."

He urged Nigerians not to settle for anything less as compensation for those who would present themselves as presidential candidates, who may or may not have won the election, because the decision “is for the future of the people of Nigeria”.

Promising 50/50 representation for women if elected, Sowore said according to statistics, women in Nigeria are more than men “so much so that if women field a female presidential candidate and fully support her, she will win in a landslide. We cannot continue to overlook more than half of the population and expect progress”.

Responding to a question from a caller, Samuel from Germany, on his plan to provide electricity for all Nigerians, Sowore said: “We have to grow rapidly from 7,000 megawatts to 24,000 megawatts. One of the things we will do is to add renewables and that can be done very cheaply.

“Morocco is producing energy and selling to France and we are here still struggling to transmit the 7,000 megawatts. They way to do it is to break it down to mini grids, which has to do with deregulation and innovation so that states, regions and even individuals can sell power.”