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Tinubu’s New Year address deceitful, empty – PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has dismissed the New Year nationwide address by President Bola Tinubu as a harvest of deceit, false claims and empty promises.
It also described the speech as unpresidential, uninspiring and amounts to a waste of valuable time. The opposition party said Tinubu did not address any of the critical issues plaguing the nation.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, reacted to the President’s speech for the party.
Also, PDP said, Nigerians were dismayed as the President deployed rhetorics and failed to address the critical issues.
Ologunagba said, “The President failed to address critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing and productive sectors.”
They also added the “crushing 28% inflation rate, continuing plunge of the Naira, alarming unemployment, excruciating poverty and economic hardship occasioned by the reckless, ill-advised and insensitive policies and programmes of his administration.
“President Tinubu failed to address the vexatious issue of incompetence, insensitivity, massive profligacy, unbridled treasury-looting inherent in his administration, which have put our nation in dire strait.
“More distressing is that President Tinubu had no words in his New Year address for the Christmas eve genocidal massacre of over 200 Nigerians by terrorists in Plateau State.”
They also said he ignored “the murder of over 5,000 citizens in Plateau and other states of the federation under his watch since May 29, 2023.”
‘Claims of working in Nigeria’s interest deceitful’
The PDP spokesman further said, “It is an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians for President Tinubu to brazenly assert that ‘everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country’.
“On the contrary, all decisions and actions of the Tinubu Presidency including the approval of increase in the pump price of fuel from N167 to over N700 per liter, devaluation of the naira with the consequential high costs and hardship; skewing of the 2024 budget in favour of luxury appetite of the Presidency and APC leaders without concrete policies to revive the economy and create jobs; the wasteful foreign trips with political cronies and failure to address the mindless killings across the nation cannot be said to be in the interest of our country.
“Furthermore, the undermining of the Constitution and institutions of democracy including attempts to emasculate the National Assembly and compromising of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through the appointment of APC card-carrying members as Resident Electoral Commissioners, REC, cannot be in the interest of the nation.
“President Tinubu’s claims that his anti-people actions and policies, with their calamitous consequences are in the interest of the nation further confirms that this administration is deliberately subjecting Nigerians to hardship as a way to suppress them to surrender to totalitarianism.
“Also, in stating that ‘from the boardrooms at Broad Street in Lagos to the main streets of Kano and Nembe Creeks in Bayelsa, I hear the groans of Nigerians who work hard every day to provide for themselves and their families’, President Tinubu has admitted that his administration has plunged Nigerians into pain, anguish and misery.
‘He should apologise’
“President Tinubu ought to have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologise to Nigerians and marshal out steps to address our national challenges, including those responsible for the exiting of multinational manufacturing companies and other businesses from our country.
“What Nigerians demand of President Tinubu is to provide a comprehensive account of our nation’s earnings. This include the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, especially in the face of allegations that the earnings are being diverted to private pockets of APC leaders and their cronies.
“The National Assembly is invited to step up and perform its constitutional role of oversight to hold the executive arm accountable as the custodian of the purse of the nation,”PDP Sao of Tinubu’s New Year address.
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has announced Senator Ireti Heebah Kingibe as the party’s flag bearer for the Federal Capital Territory senatorial election ahead of the 2027 general polls.
Kingibe secured a landslide victory in the party’s primary election, polling 17,535 votes to defeat her sole challenger, Mubarak Tijjani, who garnered 806 votes.
Declaring the results at the ADC secretariat in Abuja, the chairman and returning officer for the senatorial and House of Representatives primaries, Abubakar Adamu, confirmed Kingibe as the winner of the exercise.
The primary election also produced candidates for the two House of Representatives seats in the FCT.
In the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency, Bala Iyah emerged victorious with 4,937 votes, defeating Yahaya Fatima Goya, who polled 2,015 votes, while Ma’aji Johnson Bello secured 1,546 votes. Ismaila Ishak Ozigi received 105 votes.
For the Abaji/Gwagwalada/Kwali/Kuje Federal Constituency, Alhassan Salihu clinched the party’s ticket with 9,016 votes, defeating Khalid A. Haruna, who polled 2,955 votes.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission monitored the conduct of the primaries.
Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State has expressed confidence that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will secure victory in the 2027 presidential election, stating that no opposition candidate, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, can prevent the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from retaining power.
Namadi made the remarks after casting his vote during the APC presidential primary election held at his polling unit in Kafin Hausa Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
The governor reiterated his commitment to delivering more than one million votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the next general election, saying the target was realistic given the widespread support the APC enjoys across Jigawa State.
He noted that the large turnout witnessed during the primary election demonstrated the confidence party members and residents have in both President Tinubu and the APC-led administration.
According to Namadi, the peaceful and transparent conduct of the exercise also reflected the President’s respect for democratic values and internal party democracy.
The governor further stated that the outcome of the APC primary election signalled what to expect in the 2027 polls, predicting an overwhelming victory for the ruling party nationwide.
Namadi described Jigawa as one of the APC’s strongest support bases, pointing out that the state ranks among those with the highest number of registered voters in the country.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 63-year-old Chinese woman for allegedly attempting to smuggle a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, into Nigeria.
The suspect, described as Ting Hung Kiong who naturalised in Malaysia, was arrested on Sunday, May 17, 2026, upon arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, from Thailand via Dubai on an Emirates Airline flight.
This was contained in a statement made available to the column.ng on (today) Sunday by NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi.
According to the agency, NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall intercepted her after she was found to have two large travel boxes containing 31.0 kilograms of the illicit substance.
“During an interview, the 63-year-old suspect who claims she works as a caregiver in Malaysia stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria.
“She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand, before she was handed the illicit consignment at the Thailand airport to deliver in Nigeria,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA also announced the interception of another major drug shipment at the Lagos airport import shed.
“Following close monitoring of the consignment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, the 29 large cartons containing One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten (1,825,710) tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth Two Billion, One Hundred and Ninety Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand Naira (N2,190,852,000) were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Customs Service on Friday 22nd May 2026,” it said.
In another operation at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, NDLEA operatives on May 20 arrested a suspect, Onyeka Valentine Emeka, during inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa.
The suspect, according to the agency, excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine while under observation.
Babafemi added that “at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide was on Wednesday 21st May arrested by NDLEA operatives while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abuja via Addis Ababa to Milan Malpensa, Italy.
“A search conducted on his luggage led to the recovery of 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg; Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The opioids were concealed using foil paper and hidden inside a carton, in a suitcase, obviously to evade detection.
“In yet another operation at a courier company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) concealed in bicycle luggage carrier heading to Netherlands; 66 pills of tramadol 225mg hidden in soap container going to the United States and 18 tablets of tramadol 225mg concealed in body cream container heading to the United Kingdom,” the agency said.
In Edo State, operatives acting on intelligence raided Igwe community in Owan East Local Government Area, where 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg and 9kg of cannabis seeds were recovered.
The agency also said a 30-year-old suspect, Isah Sani, was arrested with 196,000 pills of Exol-5 along the Zaria–Kano road in Kano State on May 20, while operatives at the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, recovered 59kg of skunk from a warehouse in Mowo on May 19.
In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives on May 23 raided a warehouse in Ikole-Ekiti and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk, arresting a 54-year-old suspect, Ogundana Adebayo Julius, in connection with the seizure.
The agency also disclosed continued nationwide War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres and communities across several states.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers involved in the operations and charged them to sustain the agency’s drug supply reduction and sensitisation efforts.
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