The Nation Newspaper

Category: Politics

  • That Buhari slip

    That Buhari slip

    For the second time in recent times, General Muhammadu Buhari last Friday took on the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Seizing the platform of a lecture in far-away London, the leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) maintained that democracy is not attainable with INEC as constituted today. He had earlier said that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had merged with the election management body and security outfits.

    Ahead of the 2015 elections, it is good that we all wizen up to the demands of the moment. It is also needful to take INEC to task on the plans for biometric electoral register to check multiple balloting. This is the duty of a vigilant opposition body.

    However, I am disturbed that the General seems to be mobilising the public against INEC and the judiciary without a viable alternative in place. In the first instance, all men of goodwill were quick to point out in 2010 that Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, is a man of integrity. As an academic, it was argued that he had been tested and passed the integrity test and could therefore be relied on. The few people who cautioned against wholesale endorsement pointed out that the Jega tree could not make the forest at INEC. Others more discerning pointed out that nothing had changed in the system, processes and procedures and that much more would need to be done to assure the electorate that credible elections would be on offer from 2011.

    Truly, the conduct of the last general elections still fell far short of international standards. But, it was light years away from previous polls and the confidence it engendered could be ascertained from the drop in the spate of litigations that trail polls in this clime.

    The rounded denigration of the body is to me, cheap politics and could backfire. The game plan could be to put the officials on the defensive and thereby ensure that the 2015 election is qualitatively better than all previous ones. But, that would still be missing the point. Arriving at the mark already attained by South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia would take more than the individual resolve of the electoral body. The failure of the commission to deliver on biometrics should not be blamed on the officials but a system that has consistently failed Nigeria.

    If we must put Nigeria on the map of countries that have conquered the demon of massive election malpractices, we must all mobilise the electorate, the political class, the judiciary, the legislature and security systems to enlist in the bid to cleanse the system. Yes, INEC should be the centre of all efforts at producing a new electoral process, but it cannot do it alone.

    General Buhari should realise that, as national leader of the CPC, he also has a lot to do. The practice within his party that went to the polls without clear cut candidates is not the way to go. In all the states where the CPC stood a good chance of making a good mark, the process was bungled. Credible polls star with reliable nomination of candidates.

    It is not helpful to descend on INEC and condemn good people like Jega and Professor Olurode who are putting everything into the service of effecting the needed change. If it is realised that there are more bad than good eggs, what we should insist on is constitution amendment of the process of selecting the national and state resident commissioners.

    The task of revamping the electoral system cannot be left to INEC alone. Anyone who chooses to rivet attention on that spot alone is either guilty of reductionism or mischief or ignorance or all.

    So far, I am impressed with steps being taken towards establishing a mega political party. I am equally pleased with the role being played by the man from Daura. But, there is a need for all the key participants in the political system to realise that old methods have failed so far and are unlikely to yield better results going forward. Buhari, I recall, was manipulated in 2007 by the Iwu INEC to endorse preparations for the elections. He did not mince words in saying everything was set for free and fair polls. But, what did we get? The worst elections in the history of the country. And, again, Buhari was quick to condemn the output of a process he had so lavishly lauded. There is a need for all to learn from the mistakes of the past. And, Buhari, a man in whom the people appear to have much confidence, cannot exclude himself

  • Tukur to Lagos PDP: Put your house in order

    Tukur to Lagos PDP: Put your house in order

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was in Lagos State at the weekend to resolve the crisis rocking the chapter. Party sources said that it was a morale-boosting emergency visit aimed at affirming the leadership of Captain Tunji Shelle (rtd), who emerged as the state chairman at the last year’s party congress.

    The National Chairman lamented the defection of key chieftains from the party to the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), urging party chieftains to put their house in order. He spoke on the need for unity in the chapter, stressing that cohesion, solidarity and mutual goodwill are critical to the party’s 2015 calculations.

    Tukur, who arrived Lagos in the evening, was received by the Southwest PDP Caretaker Chairman, Chief Isola Filani, the party chairman, Captain Shelle and other members of the state executive committee. The meeting took place at the Dominion Lounge, Muritala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja.

    The national chairman held closed door meeting with the party stakeholders on how to move the chapter forward and position it strategically for the next general elections. Former Works Minister Prince Adeseye Ogunlewe, who has been a critic of the Bode George leadership, attended the meeting.

    Tukur pacified the aggrieved party leaders who complained about their exclusion from party activities, especially the composition of the current executive committee led by Shelle. He explained that he was not in Lagos to dissolve the executive committee, pointing out that the Lagos PDP problem is not similar to that of the Ogun State chapter.

    The national chairman charged the state executive committee to appeal to those who defected from the party to return to the fold, adding that Shelle should assure them of equal treatment and sense of belonging.

    There have been alleged factional interests in the Lagos State PDP, prompting appeals to the National Working Committee (NWC) for the dissolution of the Shelle executive. But the Publicity Secretary, Mr. Gani Taofeek, told reporters after the meeting that Tukur met a PDP that was intact in Lagos State, adding that the party is prepared for the 2015 polls.

    Shelle acknowledged the NWC’s plan to win Lagos in the next election, assuring Tukur that all hands would be on desk to achieve the noble task. He charged party members to forgive and forget the past in the collective interest of the platform.

    The state chairman also thanked Tukur for the confidence reposed in his leadership, assuring that he would not fail the national leadership.

    Taofeek said: “We left the meeting with a greater resolve to work as a family so as not to disappoint the people of Lagos who are agitating for a change of government. We will to reassure our teeming members that the PDP is determined more than before to take over power in 2015 and ensure grassroots development in the state. We appeal to our black sliding members to come back home. We welcome people from other parties willing to join us and we assure that all members, new and old, will be treated with the love and fairness”.

     

     

  • ‘Zoning will forestall tyranny of majority’

    The politics of succession is heating up the polity. Would you subscribe to a single term tenure as panacea to the power struggle?

    This is happening because most people who are in these public offices really didn’t win elections to get there. So, the office becomes a gigantic picnic because they don’t have serious programmes. If you have serious programmes and you are implementing those programmes and people are watching you, it should not be difficult for you to retain your seat. But if you are there doing nothing and you insist on remaining there just because of pride and ego, then, you go to any extent to remain in office.

    We copied this system from the United States and Brazil. The people in those countries are doing well because they are driven by the dreams they brought into office and the work they have to do. So, whether you make it one term or two terms, some of the issues which have compromised integrity and performance will still be very much there because it is the man or woman in office who hasn’t any commitment to the service of society that will always treat being in office as a matter of life and death.

    Talking about election, should we adopt a staggered system of election?

    It will be useful because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will have less of a burden at a given time. We would be able to concentrate more on a particular election at a particular time. But, I want to emphasise that the problem is not only with the INEC. We blame the INEC a lot because it is its responsibility. But the criminal damage done to the national elections in Nigeria is more by politicians than the INEC. It is the politicians who corrupt the INEC officials; politicians are the ones who, through corruption, are destroying the judicial system in the country. The bribes are getting too large and too tempting to be resisted. Today, we hear of serious cases of abuse of court processes and miscarriages of justice by many judges, which the National Judicial Council (NJC) is now probing. Therefore, there more be, first and foremost, severe penalty for election malpractices. I suggest imprisonment without an option of fine. For anyone who manipulates elections, if he is found guilty, should go to prison. Once that begins, in fact, let me say this that in some parts of India, election malpractices almost earned a life imprisonment. It was what sanitised the system there; otherwise, India would have been impossible to manage as a democracy. We need to introduce those penalties here. And that should cover judges who tamper with justice and politicians who benefit from rigged elections.

    The review of the 1999 Constitution is on. If you were to suggest three things to be included, what would they be?

    First, I think they should look into this arrangement that guarantees some forms of equity at the federal and state levels.

    Equity? How do you mean?

    When we talk about the rotation of the Presidency, people think it is undemocratic and yet, there are serious sensitivities in Nigeria. There is the danger of one part of the country seizing power and dominating it eternally. Then, in some states, there are some majority ethnic groups, which believe that minorities should never exist. One of the weaknesses of democracy is the tyranny of the majority. And, it is as dangerous as any military dictatorship, even if it is a democracy because it is the cause of tension and disaffection in the polity. For instance, there is no reason why the governorship in any state shouldn’t go through the three senatorial districts.Since there are three zones in every state, let it move around so that nobody feels marginalised. I am an Idoma man and I don’t like the situation in my state where the Tiv majority feels that I should never have the chance to be governor. And it is so in some states like Kogi, Cross River, Anambra, Delta, Abia. These are issues that create real tension in these states. As long as we still have the tyranny of the majority, that can’t be guarantee peace.

    Number two, the lawmakers should give serious attention to the issue of women. The abuse of women; the denial of women and other weaker people like children and the disabled of some privileges in society is unacceptable. Issues like rape and other things that women are subjected to should be dealt with very seriously under justiciable right.

    And third, the post of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the State Attorney Generals (SAG) should be contested for as it is done in many states of the United States of America. Instead of being appointive, it should be contested for and allow the electorate to vote for whoever they want. It is at that level that we can expect equity and justice. First, it insulates the man from being a stooge of the person who is supposed to appoint him, be he the President or the governor. And once he owes his allegiance to the people and not the President or Governor, the better for this country.

    Insecurity in the country has assumed a dangerous dimension. What is the way out?

    My approach to the issue of security is that real security is to be found in the contentment of the largest majority of the society. It can’t be procured by guns, tanks and machetes. The economy is the biggest victim of insecurity in Nigeria today. And unless we can create jobs and provide for the well being of the majority of society we will never have an army large enough or the police force efficient enough to suppress tendencies which are caused by hunger and disaffection.

    So let us create the jobs in agriculture, in housing, in industrial growth, and let’s give up this nonsense we inherited from the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which has continued to cause pain in this society and impoverished the majority while we gullibly hang on to it in the name of no alternative. We still have the highest interest rate among most countries in the world. So, it is impossible to borrow to invest to produce resources in agriculture. We can’t feed ourselves. We have to import everything from everywhere in the world including China. We import tooth picks, paste, Irish potatoes and so on. Unless and until the interest rate regime is set, such that people can borrow and invest, all the noise we are making about progress, will never happen. And our youths are going to be getting angrier and angrier.

    You left the PDP in 2005. Many other chieftains of the party also left before the 2007 general elections. But almost everybody has gone back. Why have you not gone back to the PDP?

    People have gone back out of personal choice. I have not gone back because the issues that made me to leave the party have not changed at all. So, I have decided that I am more comfortable where I am now. Though I am still friendly with those of them in the PDP, I don’t think we share the same basic principles on a large number of issues. That is why I have not gone back.

    Hasn’t there been pressure from many quarters all this while?

    There has been and, of course, I made my position known to them.

    You recently said you weren’t prepared to be the cook of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Does this mean that the in-thing was for the President to always want to lord it over the party chairman?

    At that time, yes, it was the in-thing. If you remember, Chief Solomon Lar left, and so was Chief Barnabas Gemade. There was the tendency not to give the party chairman sufficient respect and regard. Some party members, who bowed to the pressure or law of sycophancy, began to appoint the President and governors as leaders of the party. There is no such provision in our constitution; it is not in the guidelines of INEC or the constitution of the party that made the President the leader of the party or the governor the leader of the party in the state. The President is the leader of the country and the governor is the leader of the state. You can’t give them the responsibility of leading the party because that is where all the imposition and distortions set in. There is no more party supremacy; internal democracy is destroyed once people hang on the neck of the executive leaders the responsibility of leading the party at the same time. And therefore, there was the tendency to treat the party chairman purely as some low-level administrative officer.

    At our time, I earned no salary as chairman of PDP. There was no salary all I had was a sitting allowance of N30,000. That is the truth. Now, I hear they pay N2million in a month as salary to the chairman of PDP. And the sitting allowance is N150,000. Things have changed. It wasn’t so in the time of Lar, Gemade, or myself or Ogbulafor or Nwodo or even Ali.

    Do you regret ever being in the PDP?

    No. We founded the party at the beginning. And we intended it to be a strong democratic party. I was part of the initial writing of the constitution with people like Jemibewon and others. But the party got disfigured because there were too many aggressive incursions into it by the intruders. I played my role, stood by what my conscience told me to do and when it was no longer feasible, I made my views known in writing. And when party members thought I was a heretic, I left.

    The circumstances under which you left has been a subject of controversy. Can you tell us something about it?

    Yes. There was the story that I was sent out at gun point. It is not true. But there were indications that violence might be deployed, if I refuse to quit. There was even a comment by a leading member of the party that I was going to be given the Bola Ige treatment, if I fail to quit.

     

  • ‘APC is credible alternative’

    ‘APC is credible alternative’

    You are the Chairman of the House Committee on Legislative Compliance. What are the challenges facing the committee?

    The House has discovered that many of its resolutions were not respected by the executive. The idea behind the committee is to interface between the legislature and the executive on various motions and bills that the House had passed. Many of them were ignored by the executive and that is why we ordered the executive to create the compliance departments in their various ministries and agencies. But up till now, the executive has not really done it. This has led to communication gap between the legislature and the executive. What that means is that the executive is not respecting the National Assembly.

    Also in most cases, most of this agencies and ministries, especially NNPC, FRSC are engaging in process es that violate the law. People are sacked without following the due process and they come to the National Assembly to protest. Sometimes, they agree that they have done something wrong when they appear before our committee.

    How do you intend to solve these challenges?

    The last time we took a drastic step to correct it, the leadership of the House asked us to come down. If the executive does not take us seriously, the committee has agreed, with the support of the leadership of the House, that any organisation that refuses to comply with the National Assembly’s decisions without a cogent reason will be punished as the House will have nothing to do with the budget of such a ministry or agency.

    What is the latest on the constitution review?

    Our role at the National Assembly is to go to our various constituencies and deliberate on what our people want to be done on the constitution. We handed it over to the leaders in the constituency as directed by the House and they conducted the meeting themselves. Those who attended the meetings included the traditional leaders, community leaders, landlord association leaders and other major stake holders in the community. The template was given to those representatives and they agreed on what they want in the constitution. We have submitted the request of our people to the committee and as I am speaking with you, the committee has collated the whole template and they have reached us individually to confirm. Meanwhile, you know we cannot change the constitution, if we don’t have the two-third. That is what we are doing now to ensure that we provide a working constitution that will reflect the true wishes of our people. I want to tell you that the House is taking the issue of the constitution seriously and, by the time we finish the review, Nigerians will see that it is their true wish. They should be expecting a good result from us.

    Can APC sucessfully confront PDP, the largest party in Africa, which also enjoys the power of incumbency?

    APC is out to correct the bad deeds of the PDP. Although people have the final say on elections, I want to tell you they are tired of the PDP and its corruption. These parties know that the only way they can dislodge PDP is by coming together and let their people know the reasons why they should to give a red card to the PDP in 2015. If the PDP, which has been ruling us since 1999, is still talking about 4,000 mega watts of electricity, you can see that they need to leave that place for those who can do it. That means they cannot do it. They are not serious about doing anything. If between 1999 and today they cannot produce stable electricity, fix 100 kilometer road and yet, they are saying they want to come back in 2015, you can see that people need to come together and uproot them from the centre. With the APC, it will be difficult for PDP to use the rigging weapon, which they always adopt during elections. APC’s agent will be at alert in every part of the country. By the grace of God, couple with the meticulous ways and manners our leaders are working hard to ensure that APC is set up in the nooks and crannies of the country, we are confidence that the PDP will not remain in the central in 2015. The leaders are making serious sacrifices to ensure that APC dislodges PDP in 2015 so that Nigerians can have an alternative. By the time APC emerges in 2015, I have no doubt that our people will go back to work because the artisans will have electricity to work in their shops, the foreign companies will come to Nigeria, and our creativity will come to play because we are going to have a working system. I believe strongly that APC will be the answer to our problems in Nigeria.

    Is President Jonathan really fighting corruption in the country?

    I think Jonathan Administration is the most corrupt government Nigeria ever produced. I am not surprised because, if you look at the process of his emergence, it was not the wish of the masses. That is why corruption is the genesis of subsidy problem Nigeria is having today. Many people forged invoice for the petroleum they did not supply and that was why they said the subsidy fund jumped from 250 billion before election and raised to trillion after elections. Under his watch, we have many deficits and we have many ministers who are not performing and when the problem comes, they run to President Jonathan for cover.

    What is responsible for the delay in the passage of 2013 budget?

    The House insisted that we don’t need to borrow bond again when the oil money is more than what we have on the budget. Apart from that, we are talking about the inclusion of the constituency projects in the budget. But when I read through the budget from the page one to the end, I cannot see a single item that affects my constituency directly, when I expected that something must come to my people and you expect me to compromise. I will not compromise on that because my people must also have their share in the budget. Most of our projects that are not up to N50 million are pending. You are not going to give me the money directly on behalf of the constituency, but you do the project through your ministry. So, why are you delaying it? I don’t know how much they are doing those things, but all I want is to ensure that the work is done. If I request for street light on my road, they should do it. So, they are trying to cover up their weakness.

    PDP is threatening to win southwest states in particular Lagos state in 2015 general elections. Do you think ACN will be able to withstand this?

    People will decide. Our people who will determine who will govern them. On a serious note, I do not see the people of Lagos State voting PDP because they have seen the good work of the ACN in the region. They will not vote anybody who will come and disrupt the peace of the state. Look at what is happening in Lagos State. All other governors are coming to the Southwest, especially Lagos, to learn about good governance. The situation is so bad that you cannot even pinpoint to the things the PDP have done when theywere in the government in the Southwest.

     

  • PDP will lose popularity after 2015, says critic

    PDP will lose popularity after 2015, says critic

    A social critic, Mr. Okechukwu Okereke, has said that the popularity of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will wane after the 2015 general elections.

    He said the new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), will definitely dislodge the ruling party because it has failed Nigerians.

    Okereke, who spoke with our correspondent in Aba, Abia State, expressed the optimism that the birth of APC will end the one-party system, promote good governance and halt dictatorship in the country.

    He said: “The emergence of the APC as a strong political party in Nigeria is a great leap for democracy. It is now clear that PDP cannot hold the country to ransom. It is a positive development that progressive parties are forming an alliance, ahead of 2015. In a any country where you do not have, at least, two political parties with the same strength, such a country in in trouble.

    “In a situation where only one party has the chance of winning general elections and forming the central government, the consequence is that the party leaders that control the government will rule with complacency. There will be no accountability and democracy will suffer”.

    Okereke lauded the APC leaders for setting up a party that has a national outlook, adding that the party will attract votes from the six geo-political zones.

    He urged them to do away with ego and the pursuit of personal interest at this critical time.

    Okereke added: “You will discover that there is that spread, due to the diverse strongholds of the parties in the merger. The ACN is from the West, the Congress for Progressive Change is a northern party, the All Nigeria Peoples party is still northrn party and the All Progressive Grand Alliance has Igbo structure. If the leaders will sacrifice their ego, they will succeed”.

  • Senator seeks amenities for Kogi Central

    Senator seeks amenities for Kogi Central

    The Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has appealed to the federal government to provide social amenities for the people of the Kogi Central District.

    He also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to show more commitment towards the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASCO) and National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe, Kogi State.

    The senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District said in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Michael Jegede, that the district is marginalised in the distribution of social infrastructure.

    Abatemi-Usman was reacting to the recent protest at the National Assembly by youths from Kogi State led by Alhaji Mohammed Bashir Sani-Omolori. The protesters requested the Federal Government to revatalise the two companies.

    He urged the President to fulfill his promise to revive the Ajaokuta Steel during his presidential campaign in Lokoja, the state capital.

    Abatemi-Usman added: “I call on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to honour his words. The President came to Lokoja in February 2011 and said that no nation seeking to industrialise her base can go anywhere without steel, and for that reason, he would ensure the completion and activation of the Ajaokuta Steel. I call on Mr. President tomatch his words with action. We will continue to remind the President of his words on that day in Lokoja”

    The lawmaker wondered why the President should allow the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is believed to be working with external bodies, to truncate government effort towards the actualisation of the project, which is capable of creating jobs for over two million Nigerians and generating revenue that can rival proceeds from the oil sector.

    “Ever since we took the oath of office, all I have done is to try to bring this issue to the attention of the powers that be. It is preposterous for any minister; I am talking about the Coordinating Minister of the Economy to seek or attempt to tell Nigerians that Ajaokuta Steel project should be scrapped”.

     

  • Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

    Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

    The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

    Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

    The party chairman, sources said, has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

    Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

    Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

    Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

    “Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

    He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

    Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

     

  • ‘APC will tackle Nigeria’s problem’

    The Special Adviser to Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Environment, Hon.Bola Ilori, has expressed optimism that the All Progressive Congress (APC) will rescue the country from its present precarious situation. Ilori, who is a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), spoke to reporters at the High Court premises,Akure,the Ondo State capital when on a solidarity visit to the party supporters at the tribunal. He said the merging of the parties underscores the collective resolve aimed at rescuing the people of the country from the ‘’ruderless Peoples Democratic Party government”. Ilori emphasised that the merger is not to advance the political interests of the two leaders; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), adding that it is in the national interest. The former Chairman of the Alimoso Local Government Area of Lagos State predicted success for the APC at the general elections. Ilori said the political leaders have overcome the problems that undermined the previous alliances, urging Nigerians to brace up for change at the centre. He described the PDP as a divided house assailed by a protracted civil war, adding that a house divided against itself will fall. Ilori stressed: “PDP has over the years used billions of dollars to produce darkness and poor quality of education. There is mass unemployment, particularly among the youths. The opposition is concerned. APC will soon flow down to the state level when all the necessary things are sorted out at the national level. Nigerians will reject PDP in 2015 and embrace the APC because they are tired of the inept PDP administration”. On the electoral litigation involving the ACN and Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State, Ilori said that, with the unprecedented evidence before the panel about all the illegalities that characterised the last governorship election, the case would be addressed in favour of Akeredolu. The politician urged the party supporters to remain steadfast and pray to God for the panel to uphold truth and justice.

  • ‘Lagos PDP will fail in 2015’

    ‘Lagos PDP will fail in 2015’

    The Chairman of the Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Henry Ajomale, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will build on its electoral failure in the next general elections.

    He urged Nigerians to support the All Progressive Party (APC) in its bid to dislodge the party at the centre and offer a credible leadership to the country.

    Ajomale, who spoke in Lagos, said the PDP had destroyed crippled the economy and extended the national lean years.

    The party leader said that God had heard the voice of the masses who are struggling to overcome poverty, adding that they would be liberated by the APC in 2015.

    Ajomale said: “The Poverty Development Party will fizzle out. They have misused the wealth of the nation. Nigerians are tired of the PDP. That is why they are waiting to support APC in the future elections. PDP is already jittery because the masses have accepted APC. The end of the PDP is near”.

    The politician described the Jonathan Administration as a national burden, pointing out that its transformation agenda has collapsed.

    Ajomale added: “It is time for all Nigerians to support the APC to send PDP out of the Nigeria in the 2015 elections. PDP has failed Nigerians and they should be sent parking. They cannot intimidate any of us. They are just spreading lies all around.Whether they like it or not, APC has been accepted by the people and people continue to troop in everyday.

    “ People are tired of the PDP and they are ready to get involved. We must rededicate ourselves to the task of liberating ourselves from the PDP, which has destroyed our economy and increased poverty in the land”.

  • Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Afenifere Publicity Secretary Mr Yinka Odumakin has said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be consumed by its internal crisis, ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    He said that more attention and energy would be deployed by President Goodluck Jonathan to crisis management, instead of governance.

    He told The Nation that the sudden emergence of the PDP Governors Forum, which recently selected Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio as sitting chairman, has tilted the balance of power in favour of some vested interests.

    Odumakin, who spoke with our reporter on the state of the nation in Lagos, said: “The PDP Governors Forum and the Amaechi’s Governors Forum do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart, but they were founded for power struggle. There is none that is about the interest of the people of Nigeria but the power that be. The fora have nothing to do about the welfare of Nigerians.

    “The two groups are for themselves . It is the night of long knives; the wolves are out and they want to devour us. What is going on in the PDP is a personal fight between the wolves and the masses often pay for such internal crisis.

    “Those who take the people’s patient for cowardice, and when they protest they can use guns to chase them off the streets should know that, one day, the situation will change. We can actually see what is going on across the country today when the people are pushed to the wall. They confront the authorities force for force.”

    Speaking on the recent merger of the opposition political parties, Odumakin said the most important issue is practical leadership. He recalled that political parties, which had merged in the past lacked the courage to fulfill their vision.