The Nigerian First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, Friday, met with religious leaders and traditional rulers in Lagos State during the first day of her three-day official visit to the nation’s commercial city.

The interactive meeting, held at the Lagos State Governor’s residence in Marina, afforded the First Lady the opportunity to interact with opinion leaders at the grassroots on the impacts of her Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) in Lagos and other states of the federation.

The event was attended by All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and National Assembly lawmakers in the state, Lagos cabinet officials and members of Governance Advisory Council (GAC).

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led members of the state’s entourage to welcome the wife of the President to the State House.

Senator Tinubu was accompanied by the wife of the Vice President, Hajia Nana Shettima and wife of the Chief of Staff to the President, Salamatu Gbajabiamila.

The traditional rulers were led by Chairman of Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs, Oba of Lagos, Alayeluwa Rilwanu Akiolu, who was represented by his vice and Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Shotobi.

The forum served as a feedback platform for the First Lady to gauge the impacts of the RHI flagship programmes at the grassroots and intimate the gathering about ongoing interventions her Office has been doing in Lagos.

Sanwo-Olu, in his opening remarks, said that the traditional and religious leaders were critical stakeholders in grassroots governance, noting that the opinion leaders were the closest contacts to the citizens.

The governor also said that Senator Tinubu had brought hope to the vulnerable and the elderly through the Renewed Hope Initiative, stressing that the First Lady conceived the project with the goal to lift citizens, regardless of their political, economic and ethnic backgrounds.

“Over the last two years, the First Lady has birthed new initiatives and ideas to drive Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu across communities in the country, leveraging the influence of her office to bring the desired results. The Renewed Hope Initiative is next to none in the volume of interventions and impacts. Through RHI, Sen. Tinubu has activated a lot of programmes to meet the needs of the vulnerable people at the grassroots.

“The impacts are being felt across the geopolitical regions of our country. These positive impacts have energised a new era of grassroots engagement and empowerment; many lives have been touched across the nooks and crannies of the country. All of these have been done without any financial contribution from the government’s purse.

“The First Lady has driven this initiative through her influence, contact, passion and commitment to supporting our communities. She has done this without any political coloration or affiliation. Opposition states are feeling the impacts of the Renewed Hope Initiative the same way APC states have benefited. This shows that the motive behind RHI was not political, but a compassionate action taken to make life better for citizens who need support,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Tinubu gave an elaborate explanation about a series of programmes and interventions being implemented by her Office in Lagos, noting that the First Lady Office, through RHI, had distributed 100,000 education materials to pupils across Lagos schools, including N1 million scholarship and laptops.

Lagos, the First Lady pointed out, also got 140 scholarships through the Federal Ministry of Education Bursaries programme of 2024, adding that the state had benefited from RHI school renovation projects.

Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are currently holding a closed-door meeting at the Zamfara State Government House in Gusau.

Although the agenda has not been officially disclosed, sources suggest the meeting is linked to the ongoing zoning debate ahead of the party’s 102nd National Executive Committee (NEC) session scheduled for Monday in Abuja.

A major item before the NEC is the zoning of leadership positions in preparation for the elective convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2025, in Ibadan.

The Zamfara meeting is viewed as a strategic step by PDP governors to harmonise their stance before Monday’s NEC gathering.

The zoning decision is expected to carry major implications for party unity and its prospects in the 2027 general elections.

This development comes at a time when the PDP is battling internal divisions, making the outcome of these meetings critical to its survival.

While details of the Zamfara talks remain under wraps, it is expected that the governors will also deliberate on other pressing issues affecting the party’s stability and electoral strength.

As the NEC approaches, attention is now on how the PDP leadership will navigate these choices and position the party for the next election cycle.

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the former Deputy Senate President (DSP), has been disquieted since Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, the governor of Delta State, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and seized the leadership of the party in the state from him.

Obarisi Omo-Agege, the Delta APC 2023 gubernatorial candidate, has reason to be demurred. The Government House in Asaba, the state capital, which he wished to occupy in 2027, for which he had earlier served Oborevwori a quit notice, is becoming elusive by the day.

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As an experienced politician familiar with the way politics is played in Nigeria, he knows it is difficult to halt an incumbent governor in the same party from grabbing a re-election ticket.

Less than a month after Oborevwori joined the APC from the PDP on April 27, he was able to take control of nearly 70 percent of the party’s structure, with the state executive members of the party, selected by Omo-Agege, standing strongly by him.

Omo-Agege saw his men deserting him for the new sheriff in the party. But he was powerless to halt the tide to date. The governor planned to take over the remaining structure at the next Congress.

The party held a series of meetings at the state and local levels after the governor’s defection, which Omo-Agege did not attend. At one or two gatherings in his area, the party leaders validated President Bola Tinubu and Oborevwori for the 2027 polls.

The actions of party leaders and members previously loyal to him compelled the former DSP to reposition to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to re-strategize.

Omo-Agege’s anger—Loyalist
A source loyal to the erstwhile Delta APC leader told Saturday Vanguard that the governor had not done the needful, adding, “The way forward depends on the governor. He came into a house that had already been built by someone to contest the position against him.”

“He came to meet him (Omo-Agege) as the leader of the party. However, by the party’s constitution, the governor is the automatic leader of the party. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the governor to see how best they can meet and accommodate him and his supporters.

”They should discuss, and the governor can propose, for instance, that there is room for him (Omo-Agege) to go back to the Senate, and since the Senate presidency has been zoned to the South-South, they can work to project him to secure the position or another principal position in the Senate.

”If the governor is making all these moves and the man rejects them, all his moves will be known to the public. If he continues to be rigid, the people will not be happy with him, and they will ask if he expects the governor to leave the seat for him.”

”Sheriff Oborevwori is the governor; he presides over the state. The governor is supposed to meet with him to discuss the sharing of councillors, boards, the state executive council, and other appointive positions.

”We should not forget that it is not the entire PDP in the state that came with him to the APC. Some are still in PDP, and the people he should use to fill the ones that didn’t come with him are those that he met in the APC.”

Why Oborevwori is watchful – Party leader
An APC leader, who dismissed the contentions of the Omo-Agege camp, said, “I believe that before any governor in Nigeria will defect to a party, he must have been assured of total submission to him as the leader of the party. It is very clear that the governor was assured of the structure of the party before the defection.”

”After the defection, a series of meetings have been held at the state level to which Omo-Agege was invited but did not attend. The APC in Ughelli North, his local government, held a unity meeting, and he also kept away.

”He was also invited to the Delta Central unity meeting. He refused to attend and even instructed his supporters not to attend. He also did not participate in the South-South zonal meeting. From his body language, it is clear that he is nursing the ambition of running for the governorship seat in 2027.

”Now put yourself in the shoes of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori; the other person is looking for the same seat that he (the governor) is occupying and which, by the grace of God, Oborevwori will occupy till 2031. If you were the governor, would you unite with such a person? You cannot reconcile anything with your archrival.

”Let’s assume that they even want to come together; knowing that he wants to run for the governorship, he would ask for a lion’s share of the positions.

”The governor is the leader of the party by the APC constitution. Oborevwori is a serving governor; you don’t expect the governor to meet him at home. The founding leader of the APC in the state, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, and the first governorship candidate of the APC visited the governor at the Government House in Asaba.

”So, if someone who founded and built the party before Omo-Agege came in and hijacked the party from him can visit the governor, why can’t he?

”Rather, what we are seeing are Omo-Agege’s supporters holding meetings where they have said they stand behind him for governorship. Recently, some of his supporters held a solidarity march in Ughelli to reiterate his interest in the governorship.

”Such a person who wants to go for governorship, do you call him to say, ‘Let us reconcile the state executive council positions and share political appointments?’