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Tag: Lai Mohammed

  • We didn’t breach party’s order, says Ojudu

    We didn’t breach party’s order, says Ojudu

    A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Senate, Babafemi Ojudu, has said the party’s senators did not flout their party’s directive to block legislative matters from the Executive.

    He said APC senators’ participation in the screening of the Service chiefs was not tantamount to flouting their party’s directive.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Ojudu explained that the party did not say its members in the National Assembly should not attend the screening but to protest, if things were not done constitutionally.

    The senator quoted the APC Interim Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in yesterday’s edition of a newspaper, saying: “People don’t seem to understand our directive. It is not for them to boycott but to frustrate the process, if the right things are not done. If they don’t attend, how will our voice be heard?”

    Ojudu said the APC leadership in the Senate also directed the legislators to push the issue of neutrality of the military in the coming elections.

    The senator said the discipline in the APC would not allow its lawmakers to flout the party’s directives.

    He added that APC would always act in the interest of Nigerians.

     

  • ‘We are blocking executive bills to save democracy’

    ‘We are blocking executive bills to save democracy’

    The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has explained what prompted the party’s directive to its members at the National Assembly to block executive bills and proposals. He spoke with the Group Political Editor Emmanuel Oladesu and Musa Odoshimokhe.

    Can you shed light on this curious directive to the All Progressives Congress (APC) members, at the National Assembly to block executive bills?

    I’m surprised that you call it a curious directive. Let me give you a background to the position we took. Since February 2012, Rivers State has been a theatre of crisis. The origin of the crisis is that there is no love lost between the first lady and Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the President and the governor on the other hand. Since then, the governor has been undermined in many ways, from being deterred in performing his functions as the governor of the state or the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). Following this crisis, the rule of law has been suspended in the state.

    The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State has become the de facto governor of the state. The situation got worst to the extent that the Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu stop taking directives from the governor. And very recently, when about 13,000 teachers who were supposed to receive their certificates and letters of employment at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt but they were dispersed by the police with tear gas. Other occasions were when ex-militants backed by the Commissioner of Police disrupted peaceful rallies in the state. The Ogba Local Government in Rivers State which was lawfully dissolved has become a subject of disputation with the power that be. The Police Commissioner prevented the governor from accessing his house, insisting that he must pass through a particular road.

    Things became worst when Amaechi crossed over from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. Since then, every rally organised by the state government is either disrupted or dispersed with rubber bullets or tear gas. At every point, we have not been quiet in drawing the Federal Government attention to the ugly developments, even when Governor Amaechi was with the PDP, we drew government attention to it. We have maintained that this situation will not ensure the rule of law. After Amaechi became a member of APC, the persecution escalated.

    We have done everything possible to let the ruling government know that what is happening was not in the interest of democracy and we have noted all the anomalies which they have carried out against the people and our members. We made it clear to the President that the CP Mbu could not have been behaving the way he behaves if he does not have the support of the President. Let me say that out of the 36 governors and their CP in the country, it is only Mr. Mbu that behaves in this manner. We have warned that this impunity has repercussion for stability in the country. It will get to a point when the people will say they can’t take this anymore.

    The situation in Rivers State today is that everyday things are getting more difficult, people are being molested. We have drawn government attention to the situation and since government appears not to be paying the desired attention to the lives of the people, who are being molested in Rivers State, we would ask our members to stop cooperating with Mr. President until he ensures that normalcy gets back to Rivers State. Now, what we call filibustering is a normal and accepted norm in democracy.

    But critics say that with the directive, the APC is planning to cripple government. What’s your view?

    People accused us that we want to shut down government, oh yes. Because we don’t want this government to shut down the country, people have argued whether the steps we have taken is not going to hurt Nigerians more, but we say no. Government is about people, if there is no peace and stability, what is happening in Rivers State might escalate to other states. And if that is the case, what will be the importance of any budget? So, why are we putting the budget over and above the life of the average citizen in Rivers State? People called to tell us that our position is ante-people but we say no. Any government that does not believe in fairness, justice and equity is anti-people. Any government that cannot protect its entire people is anti-people. Any government that does not respect the rule of law is anti-people. So, what we are doing is a patriotic service to Nigeria.

    Apart from this measure to shut down the country, which other measures have you thought of?

    No, we are not shutting the country but the government. We have said if you don’t do this, we will do this. And people now think that the President is right, to continue the reign of impunity in Rivers State, with a total anarchy over the land? We are not just saying there will not be cooperation; it is premised on what happens in Rivers State. If Mr. President today has the political will to stop what is happening in Rivers State there will be no reason to filibuster.

    Apart from the non-cooperation with government, the APC has also adopted measure that would have achieved the same purpose…

    Governor Amaechi wrote letters to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on what happens in Rivers State. Several meetings have been held between concerned groups with Mr. President on this purpose. What else could Amaechi have done? Everyday people are being harassed, everyday our rallies are being prevented, do they want to kill our party and expect us to fold our arms? Today, if the average person in Rivers State realises that he cannot be in APC without being molested, he will go and join another party. And you want us to fold our arms? If anybody has a better alternative, he should tell us and we are going to try it. So, why has it become so difficult for Mr. President to stop what is going on in Rivers State? Why has it become difficult to stop the reign of impunity in the state?

    In view of what is happening between the APC and PDP, does the likelihood exist that there will be governance this year?

    If the President continues with the reign of impunity in Rivers State, we are afraid we will not cooperate with him. We have never asked our members not to cooperate with him because we just wanted it. What we are saying is that Rivers State is part of Nigeria and our constitution allows the people to belong to the political parties of their choice. You don’t use tax payers money to destroy others and protect your own interest. Nigerians should please open their eyes and see what is going on.

    Some had thought that APC should go to court?

    You know how many cases are in court already over this matter? One of the claims used by the Police Service Commission, for not redeploying CP Mbu is that the governor has already taken the matter to court. The governor has even gone beyond that. He has written about 23 letters to the NHRC explaining what is happening in the state. So, if anybody has a better option, we will take it.

    What is the response of the APC caucus to this directive?

    The statement I received from Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila which I can read to you, he reiterated the position of the party through his response. He said filibustering and non cooperation with government is normal in democracy. He said: “APC represents good governance, with respect to the directives given by the party’s NEC, urging the APC National Assembly members to block all legislative proposals from the executive. I wish to assure you that the progressive lawmakers stand for good governance in Nigeria. The progressive lawmakers will not truncate the hard earned democracy; we will ensure good governance in Nigeria. Government shut down or filibustering is not new in the world.”

    People have been talking about the passage of the budget. The one that was passed last year, what has happened to it? There has not been any good solution and development. The reason is simply because of this corruption, inequity and injustice. That is why the country is where it is today.

    So, what condition is APC now giving?

    What we are saying is that the government should abrogate the reign of impunity in Rivers State. The Commissioner of Police has constituted itself as the law and instead of protecting the people he uses force and tear gas to make life difficult for them.

    You have heard from Gbajabiamila, what about George Akume?

    He was at the party meeting where the decision was taken.

    People are saying you are heating the polity. Do you agree?

    That is on the contrary, when they started using tear gas to disperse over 13,000 people who came to receive their letters of appointment at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, what happened? When the Commissioner of Police undermines the constitution and confronts the governor of Rivers State, we are heating the polity. When the police decided to go and stop a peaceful rally with tear gas, we are overheating the polity.

    However, some political parties like APC now say ‘please let observe the rule of law’. However, we don’t have the police, the army but we will rely on the constitution to do so, from the power the constitution has given us. That is, if government does not stop what it is doing then we will not cooperate with it. So, filibustering can be used anytime in democracy.

    It always amuses us that anytime you go to the constitution, to invoke or to challenge what is not right, then you are over heating the polity. When we said the President should be impeached, they say we are over heating the polity. But we did not invent the impeachment clause? Any clause in the constitution which APC invokes, they would say we are overheating the polity.

    This is not the first time that the National Assembly will refuse to cooperate with the President, even on other issues that are not as grievous as this one. Why is it that the President normally has National Assembly liaison officers? Is it not to make sure that there is cooperation between the President and the National Assembly? This is not because there could be lack of cooperation. I don’t know whether we are the only one seeing this? All these people, who are attacking us, Labour Party, Afenifere, what has any of them done? What have they said to this reign of impunity in Rivers State? What did they say or how did they feel when some 13,000 teachers were tear-gassed in the process of receiving their letters of appointment. You can imagine what 13,000 jobs would mean in a state like Rivers. There is no state that would create 13,000 jobs that would not make impact on the economy of the state. What was Labour Party’s position? When Senator Magnus Abe was shut, what did they say? When Commissioner of Police prevented the governor from accessing his residence, what did they say? When five lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly tried to impeach the governor, what did they say? When five people try to overpower 22 people and impeached the Speaker, where were they? I can say it with all sense of humility that this rabble rousing drama, with the plan to sway emotion will not help this country. That is why we are where we are today. Our party will continue to have the courage to speak out.

    Following all these developments what are now your fear for 2015?

    Precisely, what we are saying is that if this reign of impunity is allowed to go on in Rivers State, all you need to do to truncate democracy, is to post police men like CP Mbu to other states. And that will be the end of democracy. Don’t forget that if what is happening in Rivers State today happens simultaneously across the country, it will not be easy to curtail. The luck we have is that this thing is confined to Rivers State. So, we don’t want it to spread to other states. The way we are going, will they even allow people to come and vote freely in 2015? We must not forget one thing; this is democracy, that as long as the method we are using is constitutional and legal no amount of shouting or abuse will deter us. All that we have done is to use constitutional means to get what we want. What do we want? Why are we trying to shut down government? To protect the people of Rivers State, to make sure that the rule of law is returned. What is government all about? Is it not about the rule of law and democracy? They are the one using ex-militants backed by the police, to stop peaceful rallies. So, look at it from the balance, who is overheating the polity?

    Adamu Mu’azu’s reconciliation is likely going to return the defectors to the PDP fold, do you share this fear?

    I think all the governors have responded. They are not going back to PDP. I know Senator Bukola Saraki is not going back. I know Aliu Wamakko said it, I know Amaechi said it. There is no proof that these people are going back. We have an exhaustive exco meeting of our party, there were 11 governors who attended. All the governors or their deputies were either present except for Osun State and the discussion was re-assuring.

    How is the reconciliation of APC in Sokoto and Kano?

    We believe that it is going on very well. We can see positive development on the part of the gladiators. We are leaving no stone unturned. They are all responding favourably to the reconciliation talk and we are making progress.

     

    How is the party resolving the one in Ogun State?

    At a meeting yesterday, former Governor Osoba and the governor were there. The governor stood up to inform the whole House the situation was under control. If there was political problem, it has to be resolved in the interest of the party. Governor Ibikunle Amosun was acknowledged as the leader of the party but he has to be in good stead with his leader, Chief Segun Osoba.

     

  • APC is not Muslim party, says Lai Mohammed

    APC is not Muslim party, says Lai Mohammed

    The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the country is unsafe for Nigerians in view of police brutality.

    At a conference yesterday in Lagos, he said the police has constituted themselves into an enemy of the people, who could no longer trust the institution.

    He said: “How can Nigerians trust the same police that is this partisan to protect them, especially if they do not belong to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?”

    He added that the disgraceful performance of the police in Rivers State brought to the fore the campaign for state police. “The only reason the Rivers police commissioner has turned himself into a de facto governor is because he has the backing of higher authorities.”

    “When we raised the alarm that the Rivers crisis is all about 2015 and that it was about to get worse, some people said we were crying wolf where there is none.

    “Now the situation has so deteriorated to a level in which even a senator can be shot by the police. If a senator, with all the protection around him, can be so targeted, are ordinary people safe?”

    The APC chieftain stressed that the administration was not serious about fighting corruption because it was shielding some officials who have been indicted.

    He said Transparency International had made it clear that corruption had worsened under the administration. “No administration is as embracing of corruption as the Jonathan administration.”

    “The Aviation Minister Stella Odua is a classic example; she has been indicted by the House of Representatives and even the presidential panel set up up by the President himself,” he said.

    Mohammed explained that APC is not an Islamic party, as some people are trying to label it.

    “This is dangerous. No country that has brought religion into politics has survived intact.

    “We have not registered members, hence they could not have carried out any survey to say our members are all Muslims. Our interim executive has 35 members, made up of 18 Muslims and 17 Christians, the best balance you can achieve in an odd number division,” Mohammed said.

  • Vote of confidence for Saraki, Lai Mohammed

    Vote of confidence for Saraki, Lai Mohammed

    Two All Progressives Congress (APC) members of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Tope Olayonu and Hassan Oyeleke, have pledged their support for the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki and Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant Bashir Bolarinwa and some APC members loyal to Mohammed Dele Belgore had accused the APC national leadership of handing over the party leadership to Saraki.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Ilorin, Olayonu (Ojomu/Balogun), described the attacks on the APC leadership as a campaign of calumny.

    He said: “We have confidence in the leadership of the Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed and the senator representing Kwara Central, Bukola Saraki.

    “We are satisfied with the way the merger process has been handled in the state.

    “We re-affirm here that the talks between the leaders are in our interest.

    “The agitation of the dissidents is not in the interest of the state or the party.”

    “We implore our members to continue to be loyal to the party leadership.

    “We expect that after the national meeting in Abuja we shall give direction on how the membership registration and party congresses would go. It is expected that the exercise will hold soon.

    “We also state that the party leadership enjoys a robust relationship, which is in the best interest of our members in the state.”

  • Politicking with aviation?

    Politicking with aviation?

    •The APC allegation of sabotage in the Gombe Airport landing incident, if true, is worrisome and sinister

    Partisan allegations are often like crying wolf, because of politicians’ habit of trying to score quick ones. But when such accusations are about air safety, and the aviation authorities had before demonstrated the penchant to politicise official duties, it is better everyone takes notice; and a putative crisis nipped in the bud.

    That should be the logical reaction to the All Progressives Congress (APC) allegation that a fire truck was put on the runway of Gombe Airport, Gombe, to prevent its partisans from landing, thus stalling their bid to attend a vital meeting in the Gombe State capital.

    Alleging that the incident which forced the aircraft bearing APC partisans to land at Bauchi Airport was plain sabotage, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC interim national publicity secretary, in a statement on the incident declared: “In view of the seriousness of this unprecedented act, the willful endangering of the lives of those on board the aircraft deliberately prevented from landing and the fact that the action contravenes global aviation standards, we call for a comprehensive investigation of the incident by the National Assembly.”

    That is hardly an illegitimate request.

    But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has dismissed the APC allegation, insisting the opposition party was playing politics with aviation and air safety.

    Yakubu Dati, FAAN spokesperson, countered that the Gombe Airport, which does not operate 24 hours, was on January 2 when the incident happened, closed to check fire tenders, a routine exercise, until a fire truck, belonging to the Gombe State Government, broke down and blocked the runway. Though the truck was removed less than one hour after the incident, it was during efforts to remove the obstacle that the aircraft carrying the APC chieftains arrived; and was diverted to Bauchi to land.

    Even then, Mr. Dati could not solve the puzzle surrounding how and why the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), which the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) reportedly despatched immediately, that all flights should stay off the airport until the fire truck was removed, never got to the pilot and his crew, flying the aircraft bearing the APC partisans.

    That, Alhaji Mohammed insisted, was the most damning evidence of bad faith and sabotage, which the National Assembly must probe. But even on that, Mr. Dati has countered: the APC was crying wolf where there was none; and reading political motives into strictly aviation safety matters.

    That ought to have been fair allegation and counter-allegation, which ought to be left to a detached third party to probe, with each side getting the benefit of the doubt.

    Still, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), a FAAN sister Federal Ministry of Aviation parastatal, has at least once fanned partisan issues in purely official matters. Recall: when the Jonathan-Amaechi imbroglio started, NCAA was involved in the Akure Airport detention of the governor’s aircraft, with allegations that the Rivers State governor was flying an illegal aircraft in Nigeria’s airspace. It would take a House of Representatives probe to uncover the facts and put the governor in the clear.

    The same NCAA was neck-deep in the N255 million two bullet-proof BMW cars purchase scandal, involving Stella Oduah, the aviation minister. Given President Goodluck Jonathan’s reluctance or inability to move against her, despite damning evidence, and resolutions by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, might the latest FAAN incident be the latest help from the minister’s sphere of influence to an embattled president?

    It would be too sinister to think that were so!

    Still, any hasty conclusion would be premature. That is why the APC requested that the Gombe Airport incident be probed by the National Assembly. That way, the facts would be laid bare and who knows? Nigerians would be reassured that their country’s air space is no fatal pawn in the chess of politics.

  • APC to Federal Govt: you’re incompetent

    APC to Federal Govt: you’re incompetent

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as “a cruel irony” the accusation of inconsistency and double standards levelled against its leaders by the presidency, saying an incompetent and flip flopping administration has no moral authority to point an accusing finger at anyone, least of all the patriotic and respectable APC leadership.

    ‘’The Presidency is behaving like a punch-drunk boxer who, clearly dazed by a barrage of right-on-target punches from the opponent, ran to the ropes and started punching the air, when he should be thinking of a comeback strategy,’’ the party said in a statement in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    ‘’This presidency is definitely dazed from its own failings, the collapse of the party that sired it and the opprobrium being poured on it daily by Nigerians who are grossly disappointed at its woeful performance and clear lack of direction. We are therefore not surprised that in addition to incompetence and cluelessness, it has now resorted to twisting facts,’’ it said.

    APC challenged the Presidency to tell Nigerians when the party called on President Jonathan to respond to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s scorching letter, as claimed by the Presidency on Monday.

    ‘’What we said, in our press release dated December 13, 2013 and titled: ‘APC to Jonathan: Don’t take Nigeria back to Abacha days’, was that President Jonathan should address the allegations that he has put 1,000 Nigerians on a ‘political watch-list’, in addition to training snipers at the same facility where Abacha’s killer squad was trained.

    ‘’Even then, our grouse about the President’s letter is not that he should not have responded, but that he should have exhibited a high level of decorum in his response, bearing in mind that the Presidency is an institution that should not be dragged into the mud, while the President is only a tenant.

    ‘’In order to show clearly that the Presidency either did not understand our subsequent press statement on the lettergate or has decided to distort our stand, we hereby reproduce the relevant part of the second statement we issued on December 26, 2013, on the basis of which the Presidency has misfired: ‘The party said while it is not interested in joining the fray over the issues contained in the letters written by both men, the decision by the President to go personal in his reaction crossed the threshold of decency and brought the Presidency – and indeed the country – into disrepute.

    ‘’’It said in other climes, the President would have simply issued a terse response to such a letter denying the allegations that border on national security, if any; as well as saying the former President’s observations have been noted, and that the government would study them and then engage with the former President in private, while assuring that the ship of state is on course’.’’

    On the accusation of inconsistency and double standards leveled against its leaders, the APC said the Presidency was simply shooting the breeze.

    ‘’The problem with this Presidency is that it still cannot get over the fact that our leaders, including Chief Bisi Akande, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have decided to put their differences aside and make personal sacrifices to rescue Nigeria from the PDP death grip. The Presidency cannot understand why the permutations of its fake political consultants, that personality clashes between Buhari and Asiwaju will not let the APC see the light of day, have failed.

    ‘’Also, they have been gripped with mortal fear that the leadership of the APC has reached out to all Nigerians, irrespective of their political leanings. They cannot understand that those who are genuinely committed to rebuilding a nation that has been made so fractious by a bungling ruling party must be flexible and accommodating, while holding on tight to their principles,’’ the party said.

    It urged the Jonathan presidency to expend its energy on telling Nigerians why it should not be voted out in 2015 for running the most incompetent administration yet in our country’s history. It should explain to Nigerians why billions of naira have been squirreled away under its watch. It should tell Nigerians why they spent their Christmas and New Year holidays in darkness; why most of our qualified youth are unemployed, and why the government’s contrived economic growth has yet to result in economic development (that’s hoping they know the difference).

    ‘’These are the issues that should bother this clueless presidency, not whether the APC asked President Jonathan to respond to a letter or not. We are for issue-based engagements, not frivolity-based exchanges,’’ APC said.

  • APC faults accusation of religious bias

    APC faults accusation of religious bias

    THE Interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lai Mohammed, has faulted the accusation of religious bias in the composition of the party’s Interim Executive Committee.

    Mohammed’s comments followed accusation of religious bias raised in a statement circulated in Abuja yesterday by a former Ambassador to Spain, Mallam Yusuf Mamman and a group, under the aegis of Religious Equity Promotion Council (REPC).

    Mamman and the REPC accused the APC of having Muslim members in the party’s Interim Executive Committee, a situation which they said typified the Muslim Brotherhood Party in Egypt.

    REPC Secretary-General Rev Tanko Garbaand the former ambassador also said the APC was projecting Muslims as its presidential aspirants, saying the party wants to Islamise Nigeria.

    The statement said: “It is not out of the ordinary that members of the Interim Executive Committee of the APC are Muslims. Does it mean that the APC would be the Nigerian version of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Party?

    “Check this out: the APC leader for the North is General Muhammadu Buhari who is a Muslim; the party leader for the South is Senator Bola Tinubu, a Muslim.

    “The National Chairman, Abdulkareem Bisi Akande, is a Muslim; Deputy National Chairman Aminu Bello Masari is a Muslim; National Secretary Tijani Musa Tumsah; Deputy National Secretary Nasir el-Rufai; and the National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed are Muslims.

    “The National Treasurer, Sadiya Umar Faruq; National Financial Secretary Shuaibu Musa; National Youth Leader Abubakar Lado; National Legal Adviser Muiz Banire; Deputy National Auditor Bala Jubrin and National Woman Leader Sharia Ikeazor (Muslim Convert) are Muslims.

    “Also, the party’s ex-officio members, Muiru Muse and Yemi Sanusi, are Muslims.

    “Does it mean that there are no Christians worthy enough to occupy these executive positions? Where is their sense of religious balancing, if not to deliberately cause religious disharmony in Nigeria.”

    But APC’s spokesman countered that the party, which has its members across the country, cannot afford to imagine any singular religious affiliation.

    Speaking in a telephone chat with The Nation, yesterday, Mohammed explained that of the 25 Interim National Executive Committee membership, 18 are Muslims; 17 are Christians.

    He warned religious bigots and their official sponsors against setting the country on fire through sponsored religious disharmony.

    The APC spokesman said no party in Nigeria can survive on religion, adding that it is stupid to tar the APC with a religious paint when the party has not conducted its national convention.

    “The APC is just six months old after the merger. Our party is a broad-based party from all religions,” Mohammed said.

    He accused the Presidency of sponsoring Yusuf Mamman to denigrate the APC, stressing that “anybody that knows Yusuf Mamman’s history will not be surprised at whatever he says.”

    Cautioning President Goodluck Jonathan not to set Nigeria on fire with religion, Mohammed noted that his (Jonathan’s) association with Mamman was an evidence of the President’s desperation.

    Mohammed said the APC would reflect the nation’s religious diversity during its national convention.

    He promised that during its convention, APC would reflect religious tolerance.

  • APC to Nigerians: be prepared for coming change

    APC to Nigerians: be prepared for coming change

    The All Progressives Congress has assured Nigerians that the party is determined to make sacrifices to reverse the prevailing situation in the country.

    In a statement in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Nigerians should go into the New Year with an unyielding commitment to be part of ongoing efforts to set the country on the path of growth and development.

    “While wishing all Nigerians a great 2014, we hereby solicit their unalloyed support for our efforts to reshape the country’s political landscape, shake off the heavy yoke imposed on them by their selfish, self-serving and clueless leaders and make the country a source of pride not only to its citizens but to all black people in the world,” it said.

    The APC said the first step in what will be a “tough but final battle to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of rapacious leaders will be to bring the citizenry on board the train of change that is barelling through the country,” and to ensure that elections are free, fair and credible.

    The party said: “As we wrote in the preamble to our manifesto, ‘democracy, to be stable and meaningful, must be anchored on the principle that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed….This means that governments are instituted on the basis of free, fair and credible elections, and are maintained through responsiveness to public opinion.

    “’In addition, the exercise of political authority is rooted in the rule of law. The APC believes in the doctrine of social contract between the leaders and the led; which means that the public office holder is a trustee of the people and that power must be used in the interest of the people rather than in the interest of the public office holder’.”

    It said in order to ensure that as many Nigerians as possible were brought aboard the APC train of change, the party would begin its membership registration drive early this year, targeting in particular the youth, who are indispensable in any effort to bring about change.

    “We ask all those who are yearning for genuine change to seize the moment and embrace the engine of change, which the APC represents Our compatriots, who have lost faith in our dear country because of inefficient and corrupt leadership, can count on us, because we represent committed, transparent and focused leadership,” the APC said.

  • Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    •’It’s political vendetta’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described the arrest of the Speaker, Clerk and nine members of the Kano State House of Assembly by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “political vendetta by a hurting presidency, whose target is the governor”.

    In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said: “Since the arrest of the lawmakers for approving a budget cannot be justified by any law, it is clear to all discerning Nigerians that the only motive is to harass and intimidate the lawmakers of a state that recently escaped from the hell-hole called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the APC.

    “The politically-motivated arrest marks the beginning of the long-expected series of persecution by a desperate Federal Government of APC states, especially those that recently ducked the cascading PDP plague.

    “We call for the immediate release of the legislators by the malleable EFCC, which has suddenly found enough resources from its dried-up coffers to go after innocent men, when the same commission looked the other away while monumental corruption stalked the land, whether it is the Oduahgate, the fuel subsidy scam or the SURE-P heist, to list a few.

    “Nowhere in the world are lawmakers arrested for carrying out their constitutional- role of approving a budget. The world must be having a good laugh at the lack of ingenuity by a government that is so eager to extract a pound of flesh from supposed political enemies that it would orchestrate arrests for offences unknown to law.

    “The allegation that Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s supplementary budget was meant to cover-up a dubious transaction, due to a budget review request to the Assembly to the value of N28 billion from the initial budget of N24 billion, is as spurious and laughable, just as the EFCC’s claim that the arrest followed a petition by a stakeholder in the state is questionable.

    ‘”The tragedy of the unfolding scenario, which will surely extend to other APC states in the days ahead, is that a democratically-elected government is toeing the well-worn vindictive path of a military dictatorship by harassing and intimidating supposed opponents and stifling the opposition.

    “The Gestapo-style siege on the Kano Assembly is a throwback to what Nigerians thought was a bygone era of military dictatorship. We hate to say it, but we have been proven right in our warning in October that the President was using Rivers State to test-run fascism. Now, he seems ready to roll.”

    It vowed to use all constitutional means to resist any attempt to use state institutions against the opposition; to use trumped-up charges to victimise perceived political opponents and to curtail the citizens’ right of free association

    APC said: “From the moment our party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over a case that lacked merit to the arrest of Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido’s sons and the grounding of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s plane, the Jonathan administration has not relented in its search for any crude measure to badger the opposition and perceived opponents to submission.

    “But if history is any guide, no force is good enough to stop an idea whose time has come. For us in the APC, the cheap shots from a diminished presidency and the evil machinations of a crumbling behemoth called the PDP can only strengthen our resolve to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of entities, which are steeped in medieval tactics of coercion, even as governance has suffered a crushing neglect.”

  • Treason, what treason?

    Treason, what treason?

    •Call for presidential impeachment cannot amount to treason, since impeachment ais a constitutional provision

    On December 15, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) interim national publicity secretary, called on the National Assembly to commence immediate impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan, for sundry constitutional infractions. He claimed he spoke with a “high sense of responsibility”.

    Alhaji Mohammed accused the Jonathan Presidency, and the smarting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of plotting to plunge the country into chaos, by courting the courts to declare vacant the seats of its five former governors that just defected to the APC, despite the precedence of a Supreme Court judgment that rejected a similar prayer, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to remove estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for defecting into the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Hinting at a possible judicial collusion bordering on high corruption, Alhaji Mohammed warned of “widespread repercussions as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the Presidency would be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts”. He added that since impeachment is “stipulated in the 1999 Constitution”, and the Jonathan government is at sea on security, corruption, massive unemployment and mass hunger, not to mention impunity, impeachment was a legitimate means to remove the president.

    But Dr. Reuben Abati, chief presidential spokesperson, dismissed “the reckless and irresponsible call by the APC” for Jonathan’s impeachment; and warned that “the APC and any persons who make themselves its willing tools for the breach of public order and safety will be made to face the full sanctions of the law. Those who are threatening fire and brimstone,” he declared, “should be ready for consequences of treasonable action”, adding that the APC could not browbeat the courts in pending political cases before them.

    Beyond legitimate attack and response, emotion and counter-emotion and partisan bile and counter-bile, the two issues here are impeachment and treason.

    Does an urge to impeach the president amount to treason? Certainly not, for a provision of the Constitution cannot be said to subvert the same constitution. That would be a contradiction in terms.

    But could a call for impeachment be reckless? Yes, if it is just to settle political scores; and thus slaughter the Constitution on the altar of crass partisanship. But is that the case here? Political exchanges are never clear-cut, for emotions mix with stark facts to produce a strange mixture.

    Still, the Jonathan Presidency would appear legitimately charged with flat-footedness in anti-corruption (witness the Stella Oduah case, for instance, in which the president appears helpless even with the House of Representatives asking him to dismiss the minister); and with dire constitutional breaches (the partisan abuse of the police in Rivers State; and the reprehensible conduct of the police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, in virtually levying war against the state government; and against real or perceived presidential opponents in that state).

    The Rivers State case is especially serious, for it taints the Presidency, and somewhat projects it as recklessly contemptible of the law that created that high office. That is a recipe for disaster, except the presidency changes tack and calls the constitutional bandits at the “front” to order; or faces possible sanction itself, if the opposition could muster the required number in parliament.

    Still, the impeachment option should be the very last, for it signals a point of no return for a republic grilling in illegality perpetrated by a president, its supposed guarantor-in-chief of law and legitimacy.

    So, let neither side go for broke. But let the Jonathan Presidency do the needful, after a frank soul-searching for, if the bitter truth must be told, its relentless impunity has turned PDP into a boiling cauldron; and pushed the country to this sorry pass.

    But as the opposition should be cautious in its utterances, let no one criminalise a justified call for impeachment. It’s no use issuing threats and flexing muscles, when the administration could quietly lower the political temperature by doing the right thing by law. It is the manifest folly of projecting power instead of projecting reason.