Connect with us

News

Trump, Harris race to get votes on eve of U.S. election

Published

on

A presidential election unlike any other in U.S. history enters its last full day on Monday.

This is as Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and their campaigns scramble to get supporters to the polls in a contest each portrays as an existential moment for America.

Even after the astonishing blur of events the last few months, the electorate is divided down the middle, in the seven battleground states expected to decide the winner on Tuesday.

Athena closeness of the contest means it could take days for a winner to emerge.

Trump, a 78-year-old Republican, survived two assassination attempts, one by millimeters, just weeks after a jury in New York – the city whose tabloids first elevated him to national fame and notoriety – made him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony.

Harris, 60, was catapulted to the top of the Democratic ticket in July – giving her a chance to become the first woman to hold the world’s most powerful job.

This was after President Joe Biden, 81, had a disastrous debate performance and three weeks later dropped his reelection bid under pressure from his party.

For all of that turmoil, the contours of the race have changed little. Polls show Harris and Trump running neck and neck nationally and in the battleground states.

More than 77 million voters have already cast ballots, but the next two days will provide a critical test of whether Vice President Harris’ or former President Trump’s campaign does the better job of driving supporters to the polls.

Voters, both Democrats and Republicans, have broken century-old records in the last two presidential elections, a sign of the passion that Trump stirs in both political parties.

ALSO READ:  BREAKING: DSS, Police Arrest Igbo Leader Who Threatened To Invite IPOB To Lagos

In the final days of this campaign, both sides are flooding social media sites and TV and radio stations with a last round of ad campaigns, and racing to knock on doors and make calls.

Harris’ campaign team believes the sheer size of its voter mobilisation efforts is making a difference and says its volunteers knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors in each of the battleground states this weekend.

“We are feeling very good about where we are right now,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters.

The campaign says its internal data shows that undecided voters are breaking in their favour, particularly women in the battleground states.

The campaign says  they see an increase in early voting among core parts of their coalition, including young voters and voters of colour.

Trump’s campaign has its own in-house canvassing operation but has effectively outsourced most of the work to outside super PACs, allied political groups that can raise and spend unlimited sums of money.

They have been more focused on contacting “low propensity” voters, or voters that often do not go to the polls, instead of appealing to middle-of-the-road voters who can flip to either side.

Many in this category are Trump supporters, but they are not normally reliable voters.

By cherry-picking the voters, they want to contact, Trump and his team say they are sending door knockers to places where it makes a difference and being smart about spending.

Trump and his allies, who falsely claim that his 2020 defeat was the result of fraud, have spent months laying the groundwork to again challenge the result if he loses.

ALSO READ:  Rivers Assembly: Lawyers Condemn APC's Attack on Judiciary

He has promised “retribution,” spoken of prosecuting his political rivals and described Democrats as the ‘”enemy within.”

On Sunday, Trump complained about gaps in the bullet-proof glass surrounding him as he spoke at a rally and mused that an assassin would have to shoot through the news media to get him, adding, “I don’t mind that so much.”

Harris has cast Trump as a danger to democracy but sounded optimistic at a Detroit church on Sunday.

“As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states to so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice,” Harris said.

“And the great thing about living in a democracy, as long as we can hold on to it, is that we have the power, each of us, to answer that question.”

Voters responding to a late-October Reuters/Ipsos poll ranked threats to democracy as the second-biggest problem facing the U.S. today, just behind the economy.

Trump believes concerns about the economy and high prices, especially for food and rent, will carry him to the White House.

“We’re going to cut your taxes, end inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America,” Trump said on Sunday at a midday rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

His final day of campaigning on Monday will include stops in three of the seven battleground states expected to determine the winner.

He will visit Raleigh, North Carolina; Reading and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He then plans to return to Palm Beach, Florida, to vote and await election results.

ALSO READ:  Nigerian Senate Achieves Impressive Legislative Milestones In One Year - Leader

Harris plans to spend Monday campaigning in Pennsylvania, starting her day in Allentown, one of the most competitive parts of the state, before heading on to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among the battleground states, offering 19 of the 270 Electoral College votes a candidate needs to win the presidency.

Nonpartisan U.S. election analysts calculate Harris needs to win about 45 electoral votes in the seven swing states to win the White House, while Trump would need about 51, when accounting for the states they are forecast to win easily. (Reuters/NAN)

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

Middle Belt demands halt to relocation of Kaduna Polytechnic, Television campus 

Published

on

By Amos Tauna, Kaduna

The Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna state chapter, has called on the federal Ministry of education, Kaduna state government, and the presidency to reverse the planned decision of relocating  Kaduna Polytechnic’s Television campus.

The forum stated that it publicly declared it’s solidarity with the Eagle’s Brain Human Rights Organization and the host communities of Kaduna Polytechnic’s Television Campus in opposing its planned relocation.

Yusuf Solomon Danbaki, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Kaduna State Middle Belt Chapter, in a statement on Saturday said that the relocation of the Kaduna Polytechnic’s Television campus threatens to undermine education, economic stability, and social equity in Chikun Local Government Area.

According to him, “The Television Campus sustains thousands of livelihoods through businesses such as food vendors, transporters, rental services, and SMEs. Relocation would cripple these enterprises, plunging families into poverty and destabilizing the local economy.

He noted that the campus has been a beacon of hope for low-income students, rural youth, women, and first-generation learners, stressing that moving it to a distant location would exclude vulnerable groups from affordable education, exacerbating inequality.

 

“As the only federal institution in Chikun LGA, the campus symbolizes inclusion and development. Its removal would further marginalize the Middle Belt region and violate the rights of host communities,” the forum explained.

The spokesman explained that the relocation disregards the campus’s foundational purpose, destabilizing the socio-economic and cultural fabric of neighborhoods like Unguwan Yelwa, Gbagyi-Villa, and Sabon Tasha.

Danbaki stated, “This relocation is not just an administrative decision, it is an assault on the aspirations of our people. The Television Campus is a lifeline for education and economic dignity. We stand with Eagle’s Brain Human Rights Organization and the affected communities to resist this injustice. Should the authorities fail to act, we will mobilize all lawful means, including litigation and peaceful mass action, to defend our collective future.”

ALSO READ:  Doctoring of Auditors General Reports for Presidential Amnesty Program for 2020/ 2021 by Sahara Reporters

 

He urged Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State to urgently do something to halt the relocation and engage stakeholders in transparent dialogue and also called on the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman to uphold the campus’s federal mandate and ensure equitable access to education.

The spokesman appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene to protect the interests of Chikun LGA’s marginalized communities.

 

Continue Reading

News

NBA Trains Sokoto Judges, Khadis Of Shariah Courts On ICT Compliance

Published

on

BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto

The Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA) Sokoto State branch also known as Caliphate Bar, Saturday began Information Communication Technology (ICT) training for Judges of High Court Justice and Khadis of the Shariah Court of Appeal.

Addressing participating Judges and Khadis in her opening remarks, the Sokoto State NBA chairman, Barrister Rashidat Muhammad said the NBA will continue to partner Sokoto judiciary to ensure that it get peoples commendation and appreciation.

On why the knowledge and application of ICT has become very imperative in the 21st century, Barrister Rashidat said adoption of ICT in the dispensation of legal proceedings will safe cost, reduce insecurity, waste of time, and other precious resources.

“”Judges and Khadis in Sokoto State are computer literate, but there is the need to improve on what was known before. And the NBA under my leadership will give the necessary support to the judiciary to ensure that they sustain  their successes””, the NBA chairman reiterated.

Giving his support to the ICT compliance  stand for Judges and Khadis, a law Professor from Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Ibrahim Abdullahi who is also the state chairman Continues Legal Education Committee, commended the foresight of NBA Sokoto chapter saying the training was very apt considering the security, social, political and economic problems facing the nation.

Professor Ibrahim also noted that the application of ICT in proceedings will further help to improve job performance, protect  data and share knowledge.

On his part, another Professor of Commercial Law and ICT, from  Ibrahim Shehu Bakori who is the sponsor of the  training said they have to move wit the pace of time to remain relevant in the ever changing world.

ALSO READ:  Police identify black spots, embark on daily raids in Abuja

Before declaring the ICT training for Judges and Khadis open, Sokoto State Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Muhammad Saidu Sifawa represented by
Justice Abubakar Adamu said, the ICT training ought to be for all judges and Khadis not only the newly appointed ones.

“”ICT has become necessary for every Judges and Khadis to embrace as it help fasten legal proceedings. This was why in 2020 the State Chief Judge  ordered a state practice direction allowing judges and Khadis to conduct proceedings virtually  and no any other order has been given to the contrary hence it still stands.

“”We have now moved from the analogue era hence the need to either embrace the ICT or in no distance time you become obsolete, adding the only way to distinguish yourself from the 15th century judges to the 21st century one is to constantly upgrade yourselves”””.

PICTURE CAPTION: Cross section of Judges and Khadis in Sokoto at the one day ICT compliance training organized by the NBA, Sokoto State branch.

PHOTO BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto

Continue Reading

News

160 communities face gully erosion threat in Anambra– Official

Published

on

The Managing Director of Anambra State Erosion, Watershed and Climate Change Agency (ANSEWCCA), Prof. Philip Phil-Eze, has said no fewer than 160 communities in the state were at the risk of gully erosion menace.

Phil-Eze said this at a one day sensitisation workshop on the use of “Local Knowledge to Combat Erosion” in Awka on Friday.

The workshop was organised by Environment Development Initiative for Africa (EDIA), a non-governmental organization on environmental sustainability in collaboration with ANSEWCCA

Phil-Ez who presented a paper titled “Expanding Interventions in the Control of Soil Erosion in Anambra State Through Local Action” said the state was one of the most degraded and erosion-ravaged landscapes in Africa.

He said soil erosion was as a result of a number of factors including natural and man made, and called for pragmatic local remedial measures and approaches towards preventing the menace by nipping it in the bud.

According to him, 160 communities out of the 179 communities in the state are facing erosion hazards.

“Natural causes of erosion menace include intensity of rainfall, flood/runoff, lithology (loose soil type), topography and scarce vegetation cover.

“Man-made causes include the culture of negligence, cutting down trees, indiscriminate waste disposal, lack of harvesting rainwater, sand mining, modern roofing styles and interlock tiles, inadequate knowledge of the environment, lack of involvement of the local communities in erosion control.

“Others are poor termination of drainage channels, wrongly terminated or diverted channels by contractors during construction, land use patterns in buildings and developments without plans to accommodate erosion and unhealthy farming practice,” he said.

ALSO READ:  Police identify black spots, embark on daily raids in Abuja

Phil-Eze warned residents to desist from unhealthy environmental practices which had the potential to exacerbate the menace.

The Director of Research and Publication for EDIA, Prof. Emma Ezenwaji, said the objective of the exercise was to encourage positive behavioral attitude towards environmental sustainability.

He said the capacity building workshop was timely and critical considering the fact that Anambra was a serious concern in terms of erosion, flooding and other environmental hazards.

According to him, this event is engaging, interactive and participatory to ensure effective transfer of needed knowledge and skills.

Commissioner for Environment, Dr Felix Odimegwu, commended the organisers of the programme which he described as ‘a timely intervention’.

Odimegwu who was represented by Mr Tochukwu Obodogha, the Permanent Secretary, said prevention was the best approach in erosion control.

According to him, the administration of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo prioritises environmental sustainability, and the ministry would continue to encourage environmental best practices in the state. (NAN)

Continue Reading