Tag: APC

Chief Pius Olu Akinyelure’s address at the APC’s Southwest Congress was an exhilarating reaction to PDP’s highhandedness

It is gratifying that Chief Tom Ikimi and former Borno State governor, Modu Sheriff, have self-evicted from the APC after failing dismally to manoeuvre themselves into positions from where they could very easily have purloined the party in the foreseeable future. It would, most probably, have been the most grievous strategic error for any political party to commit: allowing anybody half as egocentric and self-loving as Tom Ikimi to ever emerge its Chairman. I had first met him  as a swashbuckling Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Architecture student at the 1969/70 National Convention of Nigerian  Students which was held at the University of Ibadan and none of his exaggerated idea of himself  then has  left him. But today is about Chief Akinyelure and the APC, not on our friend, the ‘Scourge of June Twelvers’, as the inimitable Olatunji Dare described him. The good news  of their exit  was, however, vitiated by what has become  APC’s recent, uncharacteristic tepid, if not outrightly timid, responses to PDP’s serial shenanigans which make you feel  like the party  is beginning to underrate its capacity to shock the PDP  at the 2015 presidential election, which I know  it can win.

In a collaborative study we are working on, we have discovered that the APC can very well win the 2015 Presidential Election with enough hard work and creativity. This is quite possible with a good, targeted and extensive publicity, not the lies we currently see daily on television standing obvious Nigerian realities on the head,  but of the solid achievements of the APC governments in all parts of the country, especially in education, healthcare delivery, welfare of the elderly, the environment  and massive infrastructure procurement any  of which no PDP state can compare  except, may be, in solitary Akwa Ibom; coupled with strategically thinking  through pragmatic  programmes that will reflate the Nigerian economy and take it away from the IMF/World Bank paradigm we are currently stagnated with. I speak here of targeted, implementable and measurable, poverty-reducing policies that will resonate with the Nigerian people, not the  big names the PDP is parading, romancing and deceiving the likes of Ribadu at will.  These are programmes, not fraudulently collated bios of job-seeking Nigerian youth they have coyly converted to those they claim endorsed their candidate. On the contrary, these will be well considered policies that will create jobs, reduce corruption and expand our infrastructure base.  With such policies firmly in place, an APC government at the federal level  will, rapidly and sustainably,  increase the national income and can successfully lift as many as 20million Nigerians out of poverty within its first  four years in office.

If the party’s reaction to the PDP’s highhandedness had been chilling, not so the exhilarating address by Chief Pius Olu Akinyelure, National Vice Chairman (Southwest), at the Southwest Congress of the party, held at Ibadan on Thursday, September 4, 2015. The highly impactful address is, for space constraints, reproduced below, mutatis mutandis.

Happy reading:

Ibadan has always provided the bedrock for great monuments. Today, I strongly believe that we are here to build even a greater future for our long suffering people by confronting the ills of the present to achieve a greater tomorrow. Today, we are here to make history. Ibadan is a city of history, a city that made and is still making history. I recollect for instance, that the achievement of the Action Group, (AG) and later the Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN) took Africa by storm. Not only did the party become the best organized political party in Africa, it brought forth the best programme of action for the Africa renaissance. It was at this great city that remarkable achievements of one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria, Chief Obafemi  Awolowo, rekindled the hope for black Africa when he established the first television station and the first radio station in Africa. Today, I can say that we are also making history by coming together in this remarkable city to re-energise our party so as to meet the greater challenges ahead. As we gather here today, we must admit that in spite of the outstanding achievements recorded by the founding fathers of Nigeria, there is a conscious attempt to dwindle and extinguish the glorious past of this great country and a more desperate attempt to dwarf every genuine attempt by the progressive forces in Nigeria to bring hope where despair lay siege. We cannot deceive ourselves about the economic and political woes of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) which dimmed the stars of yesteryears, becloud the rainbows of today and diminish the hidden potentials of our great nation. I doubt if Nigeria has ever been faced with such a perilous future as we have today in the annals of our history.

On the economic front, Nigeria has been dragged into the red light district of global affairs. On the political front, there are fears about the future considering the odious attempt to eliminate the basic principles of democracy. In Ekiti, Osun and across the South West, the PDP is promoting a retinue of rogue regimes that negate the fundamentals of the egalitarian political heritage of the South West. In Ekiti for instance, we witnessed, not only the monetisation of votes and the blatant institutionalisation of violence but much more – using state machinery. We are aware of the flagrant cases of human right violations perpetrated by some of the nation’s security apparatus. This is different from the hordes of masked gun men that stormed the State of Osun before and on August 9. I must say without any contradictions that the APC leaders in Ekiti and the State of Osun waged campaigns based on developmental issues like the environment, culture, economy, tourism, education and human capital and infrastructural development, while the PDP based its campaign on appeal to banal instincts and corruption, based on the puerile propaganda of momentary and opportunistic patronisation of market women and artisans. This is reprehensible.

Permit me to use this opportunity to commend the resilience of millions of our supporters in the South West for their calmness in the face of naked brute force, provocation and state induced assaults by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). I also wish to commend our leaders for their vigilance and resolute, iron cast determination to defend the core principles of democracy as well as their resolve not to resort to violence. I commend the governments of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun for their achievements which have been validated and acclaimed by the international community. The effective response by the Lagos State Government to the Ebola scourge is another glaring example of how APC leadership stands shoulder high above our political opponents who have regressed Nigeria to a state of stupor. The entire country is today faced with monumental challenges arising from poverty, want and penury. The manufacturing companies are facing an all time economic low. Less than half of the population has access to electricity; living standards are the same today as they were in 1970, and nearly 100 million Nigerians live on less than $1 dollar a day. There is massive unemployment, with over 50% of our youth out of work.  And all are happening in the face of a PDP government that has no effective strategy to stem the worrisome whirlwind.

This is the time for change.

It is the time for all members of our great party and Nigerians, in general, to wrestle Nigeria from these vampires. Time is running out. We must act fast and decisively. And to strengthen the party, we must: Realise the need for us to make sacrifices for the party and build new alliances, develop a vision and philosophy our people can relate to and associate with: one that addresses current needs, provides hope and abundance for all.

APC must have local cells alongside the ward structure that will become a meaningful platform of, and for citizens’ engagement. Our politics must be accompanied by clarity of message about what we stand for. We must create a movement that will put light at the end of this long, dark tunnel and make our people the pilot of their own destiny, so that Nigeria can reclaim her lost glory at home and in the comity of nations. Our new politics must be relevant, current and fit-for-purpose and must have political instruments that offer adequate response to the challenges facing our citizens. APC must become a political party that can act as a social movement. We need to start doing and playing politics of ideology and values, walking in the footpath of the Avatar – Chief Obafemi Awolowo – so that our politics can once again generate genuine momentum for progressive change.