The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) South African chapter, Hon. Ekos Akpokabayen has appealed to the party members worldwide to work towards achieving the most desired and expected success in the upcoming National convention.
Speaking at a pre-convention parley in Johannesburg, Ekos said it was good that the party has been able to overcome several months of uncertainties.
“I am optimistic that the party will come out better and stronger than ever after the December 9th National convention,” Akpokabayen said.
“In the next few days from today, the biggest political party in Africa, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will be having their first consensus and unanimously agreed national convention to elect the key officers who will take the party to its expected destination which has remained the utmost wish of every freedom and progress loving Nigerian today.”
The convention, he said “will be a very hard choice between a step in the forward direction and one that will take us backwards and that is why we must all strive to do all that it takes not to get it wrong but to make the right choices.”
Akpokabayen noted that it is clearly visible even to the blind that our country as it is today under the present administration (the APC) is standing on a very faulty foundation, adding that Nigeria has already been taken to the slaughter and has been well placed on the butchery awaiting the final raise of the cutter, and it is seriously crying for the rescue,
He urged members of the PDP to remember that the majority of the masses are looking up to them to rescue this land and take it forward to her days of plenteous harvest.
The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South African chapter, Hon Ekos Akpokabayen have called on Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to resist every intimidation aimed at silencing their democratic voice by the present APC led government and demand their rights with regards to administrative responsibility.
Akpokabayen made this known in a statement issued to The Nation, said that Nigerians should not be cowed to continue believing that the high-level incompetence, corruption and the military democracy they are witnessing today under Buhari and the APC almost 3 years down the line is still about the said errors of the PDP as they were made to believe from the beginning.
He noted that the recent corruption and counter corruption revelations under the present Buhari and APC-led government should serve as an eye opener for Nigerians all over the world. A lot has been covered and most of them swept under the carpet because the Nigerian masses are intimidated not to ask questions, we are slowly and tactically returning back to the era of military regimes which we all collectively vomited out over a decade ago.
Akpokabayen, who have consistently lend his voice against ill governance in Nigeria said “It is time for every Nigerian who can see clearly to rise and ask questions and demand for accountability, we must refer President Buhari and his APC back to the 81 point bogus campaign promises which one very prominent among them is that “all public office holders under the APC led government must be barred from seeking Medicare overseas” which he the president himself has violated over and over again”, he said.
Hon Ekos Akpokabayen
Akpokabayen noted that the discovery a few days ago by the wife of the president, Hajia Aisha Buhari on the total emptiness of the state house clinic in Aso Rock, is very revealing, “I had to go back to those campaign promises because if Buhari and the APC made such promissory vow to Nigerians as part of their joker to deceive them into getting them to power, then it is the time to ask them to give account.”
He added that the same president who made bold with the above promissory vow allotted billions of taxpayers’ money from the 2016 and 2017 and even beginning from 2015 national budgets respectively for the running of the same clinic which is solely meant for him but which he never visited even in his times of medical needs, instead he left the country for the United Kingdom in breach of his avowed campaign promises where another bunch of hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money were wasted on different medical visits/vacations which ran into several months.
He asked how many of our hospitals are being maintained and functional today? If only the same state house clinic under review received over N11 billion yearly budgetary allocations and yet the sole beneficiary never visited it for once then it is time for Nigerians to redefine “corruption”,
Akpokabayen said: “it should baffle Nigerians that given all the billions that have gone down the drains so far, it was only few days ago that the wife of the president could discover the monumental rot under her husband’s administrative nose yet he has been chasing shadows outside in the name of trying to kill corruption, non-accountability to me is the worst kind of corruption, followed by nepotism which is the order of the day here as it is now”.
He further stated that Nigerians under the new administration were deceived into accepting the unnecessary increment of the prices of petroleum products especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) with yet another bogus promise of using the proceeds to develop infrastructures and better the lives of the masses, almost 2 years have gone, nothing, not one thing to show for it, and Nigerians have once more learnt and resolved to live with it without no questions.
On the issue of the most recent $25 billion frivolous contracts scandal at the NNPC as exposed by a first line insider, the minister of state for petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu which has been greeted with conflicting narratives as to what and how it happened, said that it is another memorable act of corruption that should not go away so quickly from our hearts unquestioned.
This, he stated that calls for serious concern by Nigerians, such revelation coming from an NNPC front-liner and the very minister of state for petroleum is over-weighty for us to allow it to be settled and come out to display some fraudulent coloration of facial smiles and handshakes on national television stations, it will be an error of the century for Nigeria and Nigerians”, it amounts to yet setting the worst precedence for our great nation,” he said.
He called on members of the PDP across the world to reposition themselves for the grand take overcome 2019.
“We must do all it takes and use every instrument of truth to enlighten Nigerians on the foundational defects, lies, propaganda, calumny, misrule, dictatorial military democracy, high level and very tactical corruptions, disrespect to the rules of law, Human Rights abuses all over the nation”, he said.
He continued: “I plead with my party, the PDP that there can never be any other time than this for us to come together, get all the fact on the table and begin to show Nigerians the very clear difference between a true democracy and a faulty one which is militarized.
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South Africa Chapter, Hon Ekos Akpokabayen has called on Nigerians to stand strong and resist every attempt to make Nigeria a one political party state.
He said that Nigerians must apply their God’s given wisdom not to succumb to the unholy antics of the ancient crop of politicians who have lost every sense of democratic values; selfish political gangsters whose utmost motive is to enthrone one party system in Nigeria in this conventional times when refined democracy reigns supreme all over the world.
According to him, this against the seemingly un-ending leadership tussle between the factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is currently breeding serious uncertainties about the immediate future of the most popular political party in Africa
He noted that the current instability that is bedevilling PDP may have been perceived by many in different ways but the truth remains that no man will ever allow his family to disintegrate if that family is truly his.
He said that in our own African culture, when an issue goes the wrong way in the family, the elders are called in to calm the situation and when any of the entities involved in the crisis is seen to be on the side of resistance, it becomes very obvious that such one is running prodigal and there is always an unseen hand rocking the cradle for him.
Akpokabayen maintained that any Nigerian enjoining the government of the day in the spreading of this numerous dark propaganda against the PDP should have a rethink and also remember that nothing lasts forever, life and virtually everything in it take turns.
He opined that the future is the nearest companion of the human race. Prizes can only be given at the end of the race, not at the beginning.
Akpokabayen called on the true members of the PDP to keep faith alive and anchor such hopes on the fact that without demolition there will never be renovation. Those that endures to the end will surely be the ones that will be crowned.
He restated that the visions and values of our founding fathers will never be destroyed by a few sale-outs whose personal interests are of more importance to them than the stability of our great country and her hard earned democracy.
He called for an urgent political solution to the pending leadership problem in the party.
He admonished Nigerians to continue to pray for the health of the nation and that of the president, Muhammadu Buhari for him to recover from his ailments so that he will be sound enough to give the Nigerian people the “change” he and his party promised
“No matter the direction the said change takes so that there will later be no more excuses when the time comes for making comparisons between the past and the present”, he said
The Chairman, People Democratic Party, South Africa Chapter, Hon Ekos Akpokabayen have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute her economic team with suitable and competent hands so that a favourable economic policy can be initiated to take Nigeria swiftly away from its presence economic recession.
Akpokabayen said this in a statement issued to The Nation while baring his mind in the present economic hardship Nigerians are still facing two years down the line since the APC team took over the leadership of the government. He said that the need for a competent economic management team that will salvage the country from its harsh economic conditions is very urgent and imperative for development.
He said that hunger, starvation, hopelessness, fear of the unknown and lack of livelihood security have completely overtaken our people’s mindset, that strong survival tendencies we were known for have been totally defeated as a result of the inability and insincerity of the government of the day to provide any visible sign of the promised better tomorrow.
Akpokabayen noted that it is disappointing and disheartening that Nigerians are fast getting used to suffering and a kind of life that is alien to our national standards as a people.
He said ‘it plagues my heart each time I look back to where we are coming from, only about 27 months ago, how the once acclaimed happiest people on the planet earth have slowly and eventually lost out in the hope race which is glaringly evident in the current spate of both reported and unreported cases of suicide in the country’.
He opined that the present government have enjoyed the support and patience of Nigerians in the last two years, yet no hope in sight due to the hard hearing and adamant nature of the APC government in reconstituting her economic team with suitable and competent hands so that a better and favourable economic policies could be initiated as quickly as possible to salvage the swift drift to record-breaking irrecoverable recession the world have ever witnessed.
Akpokabayen went further to call on the warring faction in the PDP to do all that is possible to sustain the current effort of the reconciliation committee headed by Governor Seriaki Dickson of Bayelsa State, stated that nothing on earth is 100% perfect but if at all, we are able to get up to 60% of what could enthrone peace and restore a lasting unity in the party from this committee.
”We must please embrace it and bring back our virtues as a formidable political party, now in the opposition for the sakes of the good people of Nigeria whose choices are now highly predictable that the best they could wish for now is a brighter, true and all-inclusive change which only the PDP offered and can still offer come 2019”.
He added that party faithful should come back and much better than they have ever so that they can take up this challenge of a Rescue Mission which our beloved people of Nigeria are sincerely yearning for and restore their hopes and before it is too late.
The Chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), South African chapter, Hon. Ekos Akpokabayen has advised President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to empathize with suffering Nigerians in the face of biting recession.
Hon. Akpokabayen said this recently when he received delegates of the Nigerian Christian Association (NCA), South Africa branch at the party’s head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He said: “President Buhari should empathize with the suffering citizens of Nigeria, a country which personal well-being indexes dropped by 0.06 percentage point, eleven months after the APC took over the government. A country which its masses are plunged into food crisis should hold its leaders responsible.”
Akpokabayen said that “being surrounded by strangers, we can still get things done. The leadership should set aside their ego and begin wide consultations in order to figure out the pressing needs of Nigerians and address them quickly.”
On the very recent arrest of Judges by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), the PDP Chieftain observed that Nigerians should be very mindful of this creation of a monster that could hunt all of us in the nearest future.
He said the government should channel their efforts towards the paths of economic recovery and growth, making it her number one priority, they should begin to involve the private sectors, banks, international business community via investors friendly policies and other stake holders, and all efforts should be non-partisan.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South Africa Chapter has tasked Nigerian leaders to remember and emulate the selfless sacrifice of founding fathers and heroes past as that remain a major recipe for Nigeria’s growth and development.
The Chairman, People Democratic Party South Africa Chapter, Hon. Ekos Akpokabayen said this in its 56th Independent message to Nigerians made available yesterday in Lagos.
In the statement, the Chairman said that the history of Nigeria from independence in concert with the show of heroic, rare personal sacrifice made by the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. Michael Okpara, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Saduana Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa are quite commendable and should be emulated by all Nigerians.
He said that the self sacrifices of our heroes will hunt this new generation of leaders if they don’t retrace their steps by toiling the path that would take Nigeria out of deliberate oppression, excruciating pain of hunger and unmerited suffering.
He said “despite the current economic uncertainties, it is important to always hang our hopes on the fact that there will always be trying times in the life of every nation, but times like this are meant for sober reflections which will culminate into that will drive us into that future of our dreams.
Akpokabayan also seize this opportunity to call on the present government in Nigeria to go back to history lane and take the part of wisdom, togetherness of our founding fathers that gave birth to what we are celebrating today. They should see this day as a day of history to reconnect with that founding spirit of unity so as to usher in the much desired prosperity for all.
He said “our leaders must cultivate the spirit of truth and do away with falsehood and propaganda that have undermined prove-able development in the past 55 years of our existence as a sovereign entity, Nigeria is a country dangerously blessed by God with the endowment of rare natural resources and wealth of man power”.
He further said that we should use this day to celebrate Nigerian women and the role they played in fostering the unity of the country, we need to recognize the contributions and supports of our women and give them an ample branch to perch on in our political sphere and governance as this will enhance and accelerate good governance and economic transformation.
He noted that the federal government must realize that now is the time to bring back education to our children, bring conventional exposures to our youths, feed our people, carter for our aged, priorities industrialization, create massive employment for our youths return a fair, favorable and all inclusive governance, purposeful leadership, come up with people oriented and investors friendly policies, ones based on sincerity that will lead to building a solid and unshakable foundation which will see every Nigerian walk tall anywhere in the world with boastful pride.
He thanked Nigerians for no more being conservative with the truth, urging them to continue to speak out and also be prepared to prove a point with their votes in 2019 when that opportunity will call again for them to show that they also belong to this 21st century like their contemporaries in other parts of the world.
