Thabo Mbeki To Tinubu: Don’t Forget African Continent

 Thabo Mbeki tells President-elect Tinubu: Don’t forget African continent

He added: "Please Mr President, don't be far from us."

Former South African president and Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki, has urged President-elect Bola Tinubu, not to forget the African continent when he assumes office in May.

A statement signed by Tunde Rahman for the office of the President-elected noted that Mr Mbeki spoke on Thursday when he visited Mr Tinubu in his Abuja residence on completion of the Commonwealth Observer Mission.

Mr Mbeki, who noted that the election was fair and credible, asked the president-elect to make the entire African continent his compass when he takes over the reins of government.

“Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a big economy. Whatever happens here sets the pace for the rest of Africa.

“We need a strong Nigerian presidency that will also focus on the African region,” he said.


“Your opponent will be looking for a smallest thing to throw stones at. That is the way of democracy,” he added.


The president-elect assured the former South African president of his commitment to further African integration and economic development and promised to work with Mr Mbeki and other leaders of the continent in this direction.

He added: “Please Mr President, don’t be far from us.”

Mr Tinubu, a former two-term governor of Lagos State, was returned elected as the president-elect according to INEC in the 25 February presidential election.

The first and second runner-ups in the election – Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party have vowed to challenge the victory of the APC candidate in court.

INEC Assures Use Of BVAS In Governorship & State Assembly Elections

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), will be used in the governorship and state legislature elections on Saturday, March 11.

Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance on Saturday, during a meeting with all Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

He confirmed that the BVAS machines are being worked on to avoid a repeat of the claimed glitches recorded during the presidential and national assembly elections.

Yakubu, who said the meeting was to review performances at the last week’s elections, urged the RECs to work harder to ensure that the governorship elections do not experience the same glitches recorded with the last elections while calling for disciplining of staff who err.

He added that there are lessons to be learned from last week’s elections, especially as it relates to logistics management.

IREV: INEC Uploads 90% Of Presidential Election Results

 The Independent National Electoral Commission has so far uploaded 159,509 results from 176, 846 polling units, seven days after the presidential poll.

The figure represents 90 per cent of results from all the polling units.

As of the time of filing this report, the electronic transmission of results was still ongoing.

Nigerians expected that the election results would be uploaded on election day as promised by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

However, INEC came under fire for its failure to upload results to its viewing portal which led to the walkout of some parties’ agents at the National Collation Centre on Monday.

Checks by our correspondent on Saturday revealed that the results of all the polling units were yet to be uploaded on INEC website.

According to the Commission, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, won with 8.8 million votes, while main opposition candidates in the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, had 6.9 million and 6.1 million votes respectively.

UAE Leader, Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Congratulates, Bola Ahmed Tinubu

 ABU DHABI, 4th March, 2023 (WAM) -- President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sent a message of congratulations to Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his election as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, also dispatched a similar message to President Tinubu.

New Naira Notes: We Have No Information On The Supreme Court Ruling - CBN

 For the second time since the Supreme Court ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes will remain legal tender until December 31, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refused to speak on the judgement.

On Saturday, an official of the CBN told The Nation that the communications department has not been informed of any new developments on the Supreme Court judgement.

Asked when the CBN will start releasing cash to banks, the official replied they “don’t have that information”.

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the old bank notes will remain as legal tenders while also declaring that the N20,000 withdrawal limit set by the apex bank was illegal.

Without any official pronouncement from the CBN, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) cannot act outside the last instruction by the apex bank that N20,000 will be the withdrawal limit for individual account holders.

The latest withdrawal threshold, The Nation learnt, has put doubts in the minds of many Nigerians who prefer to save their money outside the banking system.

Asked if the Supreme Court judgement describing the N20,000 withdrawal limit as illegal will negatively impact the CBN’s cashless policy, another official of the CBN said: “The cashless policy has been in operation since 2012 and many Nigerians are already keying into the idea”.

Lagos State Neighbourhood Watch Mandates Corps Members To Submit Their PVCs

 Nigerian Investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo has said that Lagos State Neighbourhood Watch mandated corps members to submit their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs), IGBERETV reports.

He wrote on his Twitter handle;

The Lagos State Neighbourhood Watch, an agency of the Lagos State government, is mandating all corps members to submit their PVCs tomorrow.

This is totally wrong in a democracy. 

Citizen rights to voting decisions is enshrined in the constitution and must not be tainted.

Cynthia Okeke: One Person Signs As PO And Six Party Agents In Abia Polling Unit

 From the results posted on the IREV portal, one Miss Cynthia Okeke acted as the Presiding Officer and party agents for other political parties including APC in Abia State. Peter Obi won the polling unit according to the results recorded by Cynthia.