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Council Member Mark Levine Discusses "Common Ground" Between Business Community and Progressives - Video
Income Inequality Debate: DeBlasio Meets With Progressives
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio meets with progressives to discuss the issue of income inequality.
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Akinwunmi Ambode
At least 10 governorship candidates have shelved their ambition and endorsed the governorship bid of the Lagos State All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.
They also directed all their supporters to vote for Ambode during the governorship and State House of Assembly elections on April 11.
This is just as over 3,000 members of several political parties are set to defect to the APC.
The parties and their candidates are: Mr Adeshina Buruji (Accord); Mr. Obadia Akinola (Independent Democrats); Mr. Ishola Aregbesola (Action Alliance) and Babatunde Sarumi (Allied Congress Party of Nigeria).
Others are Abiodun Oyegunle (African Peoples Alliance), Victor Adeniji (KOWA Party), Mr. Adeshina Olayokun (All Progressives Grand Alliance), Mr. Sesan Olatunde (New Nigeria Peoples Party), Mr. Sylvester Eze (Citizens Popular Party) and Mrs. Pauline Ojochide (Progressives Peoples Alliance).
Our correspondent learnt that the endorsement was part of the effect of the victory of the APC presidential candidate, Maj.Gen Muhammadu Buhari, who defeated President Goodluck Jonathan on March 28. The 10 governorship candidates said it was important for Lagos to be in the same party with the Federal Government because the state had been deprived of many federal projects including the highly demanded special status.
They expressed optimism that with the APC in control of the presidency, the National Assembly and Lagos, the state would witness unprecedented development.
Akinola, the governorship candidate of the Independent Democrats, spoke on behalf of the other candidates at the declaration event in Lagos.
Akinola said that the decision was taken in the interests of the people of Lagos state.
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10 gov candidates step down for Ambode
Dr. Dakuku Peterside
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, in this interview with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE, speaks on his plans for the state and other issues
If you had not emerged the governorship candidate, would you have defected from the APC to another party?
I did not join the APC to become the governorship flagbearer. I joined the party for two reasons. The first reason is that I believe in the philosophy of the party. I believe in the leadership of the party in Rivers State as having the capacity to represent Rivers interest. I believe that Rivers State interest would be best served under a better arrangement in the All Progressives Congress. So, it is only incidental that being a member of the APC, one person must be chosen as the flagbearer and the lot fell on me to represent our collective interest on the ticket of the APC in Government House, Port Harcourt.
You talked about your four-point agenda for the prosperity of Rivers State. How do you intend to achieve this when the revenue of the state is dwindling?
We have what we call the Rivers State Financing Strategy. In that document, we captured in numbers what should be our budget in the first year up to the third year and sources of funding. We have looked at diverse sources of funding and we dovetailed to four major sources.
One is the federation allocation account that will come from the centre. This is going down because of dwindling oil price. The second is the fund we access from multinational agencies at rock-bottom interest rates. The third is the fund that will accrue to us in the course of doing public-private partnership.
There are some programmes that would best be funded by public, private sectors working together. There are things governments currently do now; social projects, capital projects, economically viable projects that can be undertaken by the private sector. We will also look at this and provide the robust framework for private sector participation.
The final thing we are looking at are ways of boosting our internally generated revenue. That stream of income is about the most dependable. But two things must be in place if you must maximise benefits from internally generated revenue: the first is provide conducive regulatory environment and the other is provide a conducive fiscal environment. These will help you to attract more businesses and this means more people paying tax. The second one is that you boost current businesses and block leakages and loopholes in the current tax administration system so that we can maximise the current tax regime without introducing new taxes.
The issue of the monorail project embarked upon by the current administration has always been on the front burner. Do you intend to continue with the project if you are elected the governor of the state?
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Anyone that thinks I belong to cult should prove it Peterside, Rivers APC governorship candidate
Governorship candidates of 10 opposition political parties in Lagos State on Friday dropped their ambitions to contest the April 11 governorship elections in the state.
The candidates in the presence of their party chairmen, however, declared their total support for Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
They also directed all their supporters to vote for Ambode during the governorship and State House of Assembly elections on April 11.
The parties and their candidates are Accord Party, Mr Adeshina Buruji; Independent Democrats, Mr Obadia Akinola; Action Alliance, Mr Ishola Aregbesola; and Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Mr Babatunde Sarumi.
Others include the African Peoples Alliance, Mr Abiodun Oyegunle; KOWA Party, Mr Victor Adeniji; All Progressives Grand Alliance, Mr Adeshina Olayokun; NNPP, Mr Sesan Olatunde; the Citizens Popular Party, Mr Sylvester Eze; and the Progressives Peoples Alliance, Mrs Pauline Ojochide.
Mr Obadia Akinola, the governorship candidate of the Independent Democrats, spoke on behalf of the other candidates at the declaration event in Lagos.
Akinola said the decision was taken in the interests of the people of Lagos State.
What we are saying is that we, the 10 undersigned governorship candidates, have shelved our individual governorship ambitions and aspirations as we unanimously give our unwavering solidarity to work together with Ambode of the APC, Akinola said.
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10 candidates drop gov bid for APCs Ambode