Politics
Winners, Losers abound in 2017
AS expected, the year 2017 had its own shares of winners and loser in every sphere of life. In Nigerian politics, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was a winner of sort when the Supreme Court on May 22, declared that Ahmed Makarfi, the chairman of National Caretaker Committee of the party as the authentic leader.
The ruling to brought to an end the leadership struggle between Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff, the then national chairman of the party. The judgement enabled the party to eventually hold its convention on December 9, in Abuja.
At the convention, Uche Secondus, a former deputy national chairman, was elected national chairman in an election contested by seven other interested candidates, six of whom came from the South West. Losing to Secondus in the election were Raymond Dokpesi, a business mogul and retired chairman of Daar Communications, owners of Ray Power and African Independent Television; Tunde Adeniran, a professor of political science and former minister of Education; Taoheed Adedoja, a former minister of Youth and Sports, a former commissioner for Sports and a former provost of the College of Education (Special) Oyo State as well as Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State.
The rest were Bode George, a retired Navy commodore and former deputy national chairman of the party; Rashidi Lodoja, a former governor of Oyo State and Jimi Agbaje, a former governorship aspirant of Lagos State in the 2015 elections.
Usain Bolt, the world fasted runner, was loser on Wednesday, January 25. He lost one of his nine Olympic gold medals when the International Olympic Committee, IOC, stripped Jamaica of its 4x100m relay win at the 2008 Beijing Games after Nesta Carter was caught doping. The decision which followed the retesting of hundreds of samples from the Beijing event, which found Carter, Bolt’s teammate, guilty of doping thereby costing Bolt one of the three gold medals, he won at the Olympics.
The loss of the relay gold deprives Bolt of one of his ‘triple triples’ — he won gold in the 100m, 200 and the 4x100m at Beijing and then went on to repeat the feat in London in 2012 and again in Rio last year.
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State was the winner in the gubernatorial election held on Saturday, November 18. He contested on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
The governor won re-election in all the 21 local government areas of the state to defeat his arch rivals, Tony Nwoye of the APC, and Oseloka Obaze of the PDP, even in their hometowns.
According to the final results, Obiano of the APGA polled 234,071 votes to defeat Nwoye, his closest rival, who polled a distant 98,752 votes. Oseloka Obaze of the PDP polled 70,293 votes to place third, while Osita Chioka, a former minister of Aviation and candidate of the United Progressives Party, UPP, placed fourth gaining 7,903 votes and Godwin Ezemo, a candidate of the Progressive People Alliance, PPA, was fifth with 2, 787 votes.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former prime minister, Somali, was a winner in the presidential election held in the country on February 8.
Mohamed was declared president in a peaceful transition of power after incumbent President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud conceded defeat and congratulated the victor.
On Saturday, February 18, the newly elected President Adama Barrow eventually won his face-off with former President Yahya Jammeh, who initially refused to vacate office having lost in the presidential election held in December 2016.
On February 12, Germans elected Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democratic Party as their largely ceremonial president. He was the single candidate of the ruling coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, CDU/CSU. Steinmeier was elected on the first ballot, and took office on March 19.
Losers in the election were Frankfurt Albrecht Glaser of the Alternative for Germany and Alexander Hold, a TV celebrity, who represented the Free Voters.
On April 29, Anthony Joshua, a Nigerian-born British boxer, was a winner in the World Boxing Association, heavyweight title, when he defeated Waldimir Klitsko of Ukraine through a technical knockout in the 11th round of the fight.
In the French presidential election held on May 7, 2017, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche was the winner, defeating Marine Le Pen of the National Front. As no candidate won a majority in the first round on April 23, a run-off was held between Macron and Le Pen on May 7.
Macron eventually won by a decisive margin with 66.1 percent of the vote counts while Le Pen got 33.9 percent of votes count.
Theresa May, prime minister of the United Kingdom was re-elected following general election of 2017 took place on Thursday, June 8.
In the election, the Conservative Party, which May leads, won with 42 percent of the vote. The Labour Party, the official opposition led by Jeremy Corbyn, came second with 40 percent.
The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats, the third- and fourth-largest parties, both lost vote share.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was on August 4, elected for an unprecedented third term in office. He got 98.79 percent of the vote cast.
Losers in the election were Phillipe Mpayimana, a former journalist and author, who has lived outside Rwanda since 1994 and worked with humanitarian organisations; Frank Habineza of Green Party and Diane Rwigara, a 35-year-old businesswoman.
Federal elections were held in Germany on Sunday, September 24, 2017, to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. The new Bundestag will in turn elect a Chancellor, who must ordinarily command the support of an absolute majority of its members in order to form a new government.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor led the coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, CDU/CSU, to another victory on Sunday, September 24, for the fourth time, when members of the 19th Bundestag were elected.
The election saw the CDU/CSU win 33 percent of the vote, a drop of more than eight percent and its lowest share of the vote since 1949, while the SPD achieved its worst result since the Second World War with just 20 percent of the vote.
The Alternative for Germany, AfD, which was previously unrepresented in the Bundestag—became the third party in the Bundestag with 12.6 percent of the vote and a plurality of the vote in Saxony.
In the 709 member Bundestag, the CDU/CSU won 246 seats (200 CDU and CSU 46), SPD 153, AfD 94, FDP 80, the Left (Linke) 69, and the Greens 67. A majority is 355. No party won an outright majority in any state, including Bavaria, where the CSU often wins majorities and won a majority of the vote in 2013.
October 7, Nigeria was winner when the Super Eagles beat Chipolopolo of Zambia by a lone goal to book its World Cup ticket to Russia. The World Cup tournament holds in Russia in June 2018.
Despite the re-run of presidential elections in Kenya on October 26, President Uhuru Kenyatta, won a second term in election boycotted by Raila Odinga, the main opposition candidate. Kenyatta had been previously re-elected on August 8, with 54 percent of the vote. Odinga refused to accept the results and contested them in the Supreme Court.
The results were subsequently annulled thereby allowing for fresh election. The presidential election was eventually held on October 26, 2017.
Odinga was the loser because despite the ruling for a new presidential election, he withdrew from the election, thereby allowing Kenyatta a second term in office.
President Robert Mugabe was the loser on November 21, 2017, when he had to resign from his post. The winners in the matter were Zimbabweans, including Emmerson Mnangagwa, his former vice president, whom he had removed from office on November 6. Mugabe had been in office for about 37 years.
Through military intervention, Mugabe, 93, eventually left the office having been suspected of trying to make Grace Mugabe, his wife, succeed him.
Mnangagwa, 75, was sworn in on Friday November 24.
On November 24, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, was the ultimate loser when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on December 3, defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Christiano Ronaldo of Portugal, who plies his football trade for Real Madril of Spain, won his fifth Ballon d’Or on December 7. The losers in the race for the award were Lionel Messi of Argentina and Neymar Jnr. of Brazil.
Ronaldo had also on October 23, won the FIFA best footballer of the year.
Doug Jones on Tuesday, December 12, became the first Democrat Party in a generation to win a senate seat in Alabama, United States, beating Roy Moore of Republican amid a firestorm of allegations that the GOP candidate had sexually abused teens.
“I think I have been waiting all my life and now I don’t know what the hell to say,” Jones said, adding: “I am truly overwhelmed…. This entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign — this campaign has been about the rule of law. This campaign has been about common courtesy and decency and making sure everyone in this state, regardless of which ZIP code you live in, is going to get a fair shake in life.”
– Dec 29, 2017 @ 17:23 GMT |
Tags: Ahmed Makarfi Anambra State Atiku Abubakar Emmanuel Macron Gbenga Daniel GOVERNOR Willie Obiano Jimi Agbaje Losers abound in 2017 Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed nigeria President Paul Kagame PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe President Yahya Jammeh Raila Odinga Rashidi Lodoja Taoheed Adedoja Tunde Adeniran Uche Secondus Usain Bolt winners
