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A Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has called for a debate, on the economy, among all the presidential aspirants on the economy.Photo Atiku ? this man looks like a Hitman sha

Abubakar, a former vice-President, made the call after submitting his nomination form at the PDP national secretariat on Tuesday in Abuja.

The Adamawa State- born politician said the economy should be the main issue in the 2011 election campaigns.

“The issue of economic recovery for Nigeria cannot be a matter of wishful thinking nor of rhetoric. It is a subject for rigorous analyses and provision of well-thought, viable, practicable and sustainable strategy,” he said.

Abubakar said that all aspirants must be able to tell Nigerians how they intended to confront the challenges of the economy and reposition it for the benefit of all at the shortest possible time.

He said, “Of all the aspirants that have declared interest in the presidential election, I consider myself the most qualified to address the daunting economic challenges facing the country.

“I am the only one who has successfully managed a business and you need extensive knowledge of the private sector to combine its potential with the authority of the public sector to address this challenge.”

The former vice-president said his approach to resolving the economic crisis in the country was contained in a 47-page Policy Document he presented on August 15, 2010 while announcing his intention to contest the 2011 presidential poll.

He said, “We are faced with a job crisis of monumental proportions. Unless we evolve strategies to dealing with the teeming population of young people churned out almost on a daily basis, we may risk the destruction of the next generation.

“If we fail to channel the energies of this huge population, they could be a potent force for instability and social unrest.”

Abubakar, however, stunned journalists when he said that he was not aware that the President had declared his intention to vie for the PDP ticket.

“I didn’t see it (declaration). Honestly, I didn’t watch it,” he said.

Twenty seven out of the 28 PDP governors were among thousands of people that attended Jonathan’s presidential declaration at the Eagle Square on Saturday in Abuja. The event was shown live by some public and private television stations nationwide.

On the reported move by some politicians to produce a consensus presidential candidate among the Northern aspirants, Abubakar said, “There is a process for the emergence of a consensus candidate in the North. It shows that North is even more united if “they” agree to bring out a consensus candidate.”

He also said he was not aware of the support that Jonathan was getting from the northern states.

Reacting to the challenge, the Presidential Adviser to Jonathan on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said the President was ready for such a debate.

“We are ready for it (debate) anytime. The President has talked about all the aspects of the economy when he declared. If they want more, we are ready for them,” he said.

Another aspirant, who is also the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also expressed readiness for the debate.

“We are ready for the debate. That is what we have been calling for. Without such an issue-based debate, we will not be able to get the best candidate. Saraki is ready for it,” one of the governor’s aides, Mr. Billy Adedamola, said.

shuo na by force abeg make i go get my camera joo !

2011: Gbemi Saraki must contest or we walk naked•Female group threatens

AS the issue of who takes over from Dr. Bukola Saraki as the next governor of Kwara State gathers momentum, a female group, comprising students from various higher institutions of learning in the state, has vowed to walk the streets of Ilorin naked if Senator Gbemisola Saraki failed to contest for governorship in 2011.Photo Ekiti women in recent Naked protest

The group also said that it would go on exile if the senator refused to contest.

The group, under the aegis of distinct Ladies of Gbemisola Saraki Forum (DLGSF), while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, on Sunday evening, stated that the senator should come out and declare her intention to contest for the position.

According to the Coordinator of the group, Miss Bola Babs, whether the senator is from the family of Saraki or not is immaterial to her political ambition, “after all Dr Olusola Saraki, who is the father of both, has the final say over the matter of who becomes the governor of Kwara.”

Her words: “For sometime now, we have been drumming it to the ears of Senator Gbemisola Saraki to go out and represent the women folk come 2011 but she has not answered us. We want her consent to become the next governor of this state yet she has refused to answer us.

Soon Yahoo Yahoo will be legal .

In a dramatic move, the Senate yesterday voted to delete an aspect of the Constitution which prohibits people indicted for various offences from contesting elections.

Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president and the leader of the constitution review committee which made the recommendation argued that if left in the constitution, it can be used by government officials to witch-hunt political opponents.

Mr. Ekweremadu, a lawyer, also argued that other provisions in section 137 of the constitution can adequately cover the intentions of the deleted section. The section, 137 (1), prohibits people who have been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by state or federal panels of enquiry or tribunals from running for presidential office.

During the voting, 90 senators supported that it be deleted while only five senators voted for the retention of the section.

However, typographical errors and omissions prevented the Senate from formally passing the draft after the final reading on Wednesday.

Government of thieves

Various reactions across the country have trailed the vote for the removal of this section.

"This confirms what we have always been saying, that this is a government of thieves and therefore the anti-corruption campaign is dead," lamented Balarabe Musa, the chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties. Mr. Musa, in a phone interview from Kaduna added that, "we are now in trouble in Nigeria because we are apparently now being ruled by thieves in Nigeria." He likened the ‘Senate's abysmal act' to the failure of the National Assembly in passing the forfeiture bill sent to them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to confiscate properties of treasury looters.

This sentiment was echoed by Rotimi Akeredolu, the Nigerian Bar Association president who described the Senators' action in a terse text message, as a "futile exercise" adding that, "the Senate cannot on its own alone repeal any provision of Constitution."

A timely amendment

However, Sam Amadi, a lawyer, and director, Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development said the repeal of the act was not an anomaly. Mr Amadi said that in line with other constitutions across the world, the Electoral Act and not the Constitution should specify the eligibility of candidates to contest for election. "I think the clause should be removed completely from the constitution," Mr. Amadi said. "Our Constitution is not working because we have so many unnecessary things in it. Given our country where corrupt persons aspire to the highest offices in the land, the Electoral Act should be what is to be amended and the eligibility clause should be streamlined into criminal conviction and not just indictments." He also warned about what he called, "retaliatory indictments," saying, "we've seen in the past where governors set up panels and enquiries to get back at foes thereby discrediting the person(s) candidature for elections through such indictments and thereby creating confusion and legal challenges for the electoral process."

Another legal practitioner who welcomed the Senate's action is Chris Uche, who said, "the amendment of Section 137 (1)of the Constitution is timely and welcome to remove disqualification to contest election based on indictment by panel of inquiry given the abuse of that clause by governments."

According to Mr Uche, "the need has arisen because of the abuse of this provision by the federal and state governments to block political opponents from contesting elections."

Mr Uche based his argument on what happened to former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku and the former administration in Abia State which also issued a white paper indicting several politicians. "Happily, the Supreme court had in the Atiku case (AC vs INEC) in 2007, neutralised that provision which has now been repealed by defining indictment to mean trial by a court of law. Therefore, what the Senate has done is a legislative endorsement of a judicial reformation of the law by a proactive Supreme court."

Yinka Odumakin, the spokesperson of the Save Nigeria Group who recalled a statement credited to a Senator, Nuhu Aliyu, that the "National Assembly is full of criminals," warned that politicians should not think of using this avenue to pave the way for their return in the forthcoming elections.

He however recalled that the supreme court already ruled that an indictment by an admnistrative panel is not a judicial conviction. "We saw the way this section was abused under Olusegun Obasanjo. Even Orji Kalu set up a panel to do a counter-indictment of Mr. Obasanjo and Iyabo."

The cross carpeting law

Senate also deleted the section prohibiting lawmakers from cross carpeting. Section 68 (g) prohibits federal legislators from dumping the political party on whose platform they were elected unless there is a division in that party. It was deleted by a lean margin of 75 votes, two votes above the required minimum of 73.

Insertions were also made in the constitution, including two clauses in section 228 of the 1999 constitution, to enable the National Assembly make laws that will regulate internal democracies in political parties.

The new section, which got at least 89 votes on Wednesday now reads:

"The National assembly may by law provide for guidelines and rules to ensure internal democracy within political parties, including making laws for the conduct of party primaries, party primaries and party conventions."

Another insertion, to account for every day a governor or president whose election was annulled but wins the re-run election spent before the re-run election was also very popular with the senators. It was passed with 88 votes.

"In the calculation of the four year term, where a re-election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account," the section reads.

The other recommendations which passed include clauses which make the Independent National Electoral Commission and its chairman above the authority of the president or any other body, and the recommendations to make the commission, the National Assembly and the Judiciary financially independent of the executive.

The independent candidacy clause and the recommendation to conduct election not earlier than 150 days before swearing in and not later than 90 days, were also passed overwhelmingly.

The draft amended constitution also recommended a fixed time for hearing and ruling on election petitions by both election petition tribunals and courts of appeal.