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Tag: Opposition

  • APC: Jonathan has begun war against opposition

    APC: Jonathan has begun war against opposition

    Five more governors on sack list, says party

    PDP dismisses claim

    The battle line was drawn yesterday between the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

    APC Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun accused President Goodluck Jonathan of declaring war against the opposition with state-sponsored impeachment proceedings.

    He said the impeachment of Admiral Murtala Nyako as the governor of Adamawa State was “unacceptable”.

    He alleged that members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly were induced with $300,000 as part-payment to impeach Nyako.

    He said a N500 million offer had been dangled before Nasarawa State lawmakers to remove Governor Tanko Al-Makura and N75million per lawmaker to sack Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

    Odigie-Oyegun alleged that Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were out to remove APC governors in Borno, Nasarawa, Edo, Osun and Rivers states.

    He said the President, who had become “obsessed” with his re-election aspiration in 2015, was ready to destroy the country.

    Odigie-Oyegun, who spoke at a crowded press conference in Abuja, said the APC will resist any moves by the President to return Nigeria to the “dark days”.

    He said: “Events in Nigeria in the past few weeks point to a return to the dark old days of state dictatorship, lawlessness, impunity and repression.

    “Our freedoms are being emasculated, our economy being run to the ground, and our only hope of bringing about change – our democratic expression – is being smothered before our very eyes all because President Goodluck Jonathan is so obsessed with re-election in 2015 at all cost that he is destroying not just all our key institutions but indeed the entire country.”

    The APC National Chairman said the party was being pushed to the wall and would fight back.

    He added: “At this critical juncture of our history and despite our desire for restraint and mature engagement with President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), it is evident that inaction is no longer an option and we must resist.

    “Indeed keeping quiet in the face of the ceaseless and unrelenting reckless violations of all known laws of the land and the Constitution will amount to complicity in the lawlessness and impunity that has become the norm under President Goodluck Jonathan. We know it has been the dream of the ruling PDP to rule for 60 unbroken years, not minding if Nigeria becomes a desert land in the process.

    “Their evil machination has manifested in Ekiti. It manifested yesterday in Adamawa. They have carried it to Nasarawa, and they have Edo, Osun and Rivers in their sight.

    “In the states mentioned, all of them opposition strongholds, President Jonathan and his party have abused national institutions, resorted to a crude use of force and engaged in unprecedented financial inducements to achieve their objectives.

    “All these anti-democratic tactics come under the umbrella of power with impunity!”

    Odigie-Oyegun said: “But there is a bigger problem. President Jonathan is obsessed with his re-election in 2015, and he does not mind if Nigeria is destroyed in the process.

    “He does not care whether every institution of state, be it the military, the courts, INEC or any other one, is destroyed. All that matters now is his re-election.

    “This explains why he has embarked on this war against the opposition, this war against all of Nigeria.

    “Having bastardised the army, the police, the courts, aviation and the electoral commission, he has now moved to the next level: Impeachment. Every impeachment or threat of it in recent times has the imprint of President Jonathan.

    “As we speak, the Governor of Adamawa, Murtala Nyako, has been impeached at the instance of the President and his party. They have moved to Nasarawa, their next stop, while Rivers, Edo and Borno, all APC states, are not being spared the destabilisation that precedes their new-found weapon.”

    He attributed Nyako’s impeachment to the ex-governor’s defection to the APC.

    He said the President was guilty of allegations of extra-budgetary expenditure with which Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State is being threatened with impeachment.

    He added: “What was Nyako impeached for? Offences he allegedly committed five years ago. Those offences were not impeachable when he was in the PDP. But the moment he decamped to the APC, they became impeachable.

    “The entire ‘impeachment’ of Governor Nyako is so fraught with irregularities, bias, judicial contradictions and in violation of every procedural and constitutional provision that it is the worst manifestation of impunity.

    “We intend to mount an immediate and rigorous challenge to this gross injustice to the party and people of Adamawa State.

    “What is Governor Al-Makura of Nasarawa being threatened with impeachment for? Allegations of extra-budgetary expenditure, the same offence that President Jonathan has committed many times.

    “In fact, on only on the 10th of July 2014, the Senate passed a resolution asking President Goodluck Jonathan to prepare and submit to the National Assembly supplementary budget to cover the over expenditure in the sum of N90.693 billion (US$585 million) for PMS subsidy 2012 and the sum of N685.910 billion (US$4.430 billion) for Kerosene (DPK) subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly in 2012 and 2013!”

    A livid Odigie-Oyegun gave insights into mass bribery of lawmakers in Adamawa and Nasarawa states to impeach their governors.

    He said: “In Adamawa, each member of the State House of Assembly was allegedly given US $300,000 as part payment to impeach Governor Nyako; some N500 million has allegedly been moved to Nasarawa to induce the state’s lawmakers to impeach Governor Al-Makura, and in Edo, each lawmaker has allegedly been offered N75million to impeach Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

    “Now, who is guiltier of gross misconduct than a President who is frittering away our commonwealth to induce perfidious legislators to impeach state governors? Who is guiltier of gross misconduct than a President who deploys troops to harass, intimidate and arrest the opposition during an election?

    “Who deserves to be impeached for gross misconduct more than a President who uses national institutions against the opposition, and shuts airports arbitrarily?

    “President Jonathan’s desperation knows no bounds, and he is willing to set a record of presiding over the greatest number of impeachments under his tenure.

    “Before Nyako’s impeachment on Tuesday, a total of five impeachments have been carried out in all of the 15 years of the Fourth Republic. But between now and 2015, President Jonathan is championing five impeachments, in Adamawa, Nasarawa, Edo, Rivers and Borno.”

    Odigie-Oyegun expressed concern that the military had been compromised to do the President’s biddings.

    He said: “In doing so, he is subverting hitherto respected national institutions. The Army has been so compromised that it can no longer be trusted by anyone to be neutral. The army has been so abused that it now carries out police duties.

    “Soldiers were deployed to guard the residence of the Chief Judge of Adamawa while the impeachment proceedings were on. Soldiers were deployed to guard each member of the impeachment panel. Soldiers were also deployed to guard the venue where the panel sat.

    “In Ekiti, soldiers were deployed to hunt down the opposition and prevent them from moving around freely, in contravention of the nation’s constitution.

    “In Osun, soldiers are again to be deployed to shut down the state and go after the opposition.

    “By using the military for election duties, President Jonathan is clearly disobeying a court order as the Court of Appeal had ruled as far back as 2005 that the involvement of the military in the conduct of elections is an aberration and, therefore, unconstitutional. Indeed in the words of Salami, JCA on page 176 in the case of Yusuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 NWLR (Pt. 956 96@174-5)

    “It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise the democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarised. This is not what the citizenry bargained for after 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianise the polity and thereby ensure survival and sustenance of democracy.”

    “The Akure airport was suddenly slammed shut just to punish opposition leaders who had converged on Ekiti for Governor Kayode Fayemi’s campaign rally. They had to travel all night by road to Lagos.

    “In Borno, under the guise of ensuring security, the Maiduguri Airport has been closed for several weeks; hence the Borno Governor and the people of the state, including the pilgrims heading for lesser Hajj, have been forced to travel by road to Kano to board their flights.

    “However, the reason for shutting the airport has suddenly vanished as the private plane bearing former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff was allowed to land at the airport on Monday, the same day the governor had to travel by road to Kano to see his brother who was involved in an accident on the same road.

    “Obviously, President Jonathan is fast turning Nigeria into George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where some animals are more equal than the others.

    “Welcome to Nigeria of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, where the only people who are deemed to be true Nigerians are those under the umbrella of the PDP, where the only people worth protecting are PDP members!”

    The APC National Chairman reminded President Jonathan and the PDP that political greed had always derailed the nation’s democracy.

    He called on all friends of Nigeria to prevail on President Jonathan to apply the brakes in his “obsessive” quest for power.

    Oyegun said: “We have raised the alarm several times that President Jonathan’s obsession with his re-election is a clear and present danger to our democracy.

    “Today, we say this President’s obsession with re-election is threatening the very existence of our nation.

    “Never in the history of our dear nation has any President waged war on the country the way this President is doing. Never in the history of our country has any President desecrated national institutions like this President is doing to the very institutions that sustain democracy.

    “Never in the history of our country have our people been so divided along ethnic, religious, political and social lines, with poverty rising astronomically in the backdrop of a claimed rapid growth in the nation’s GDP.

    “We warn that excessive political greed will always have its consequences. Any student of Nigeria’s contemporary history will realise what acts of impunity and desperation to win elections at all cost did to the country in 1965, 1983 and 1993, just to mention but a few.

    “We call on all friends of Nigeria to prevail on President Jonathan to apply the brakes in his obsessive quest for power, because every action has consequences.

    “It is time for those who can still get the ears of this President to remind him that his ambition is not worth the destruction of a whole country. All those who can must act now before it is too late!”

    The briefing was attended by party bigwigs, including Deputy National Chairman Shuaib Lawal; National Secretary Mai Mala Buni, one-time Minister and former National Chairman of PDP Chief Audu Ogbeh; a  former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Mallam Nasir el-Rufai; Senator Bukola Saraki; Minority Leader in the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila; ex-Deputy Governor of Bauchi State Alhaji Mohammed  Garba Gadi, National Vice-Chairman (North-East) B. D. Lawal;  National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed; National Organising Secretary Senator Osita Izunaso; National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties(CNPP) Osita Okechukwu; anti-corruption crusader Dino Melaye and other members of the party’s National Executive Committee.

     

  • Opposition has stabilised polity, says Lai Mohammed

    Opposition has stabilised polity, says Lai Mohammed

    THE Interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the main opposition party has stabilised the polity.

    He said opposition was necessary in a democracy to promote good governance, stability and accountability.

    Mohammed, the guest speaker at the Students’ Week of the Nigeria Institute of Journalism (NIJ) in Ogba, a Lagos suburb, urged the Federal Government to perform its responsibilities, instead of calling the opposition names.

    In a lecture titled: The Role of the Media, Youth and Opposition in Sustaining and Deepening Nigerian Democracy, the APC spokesman said the party had performed its role well in sustaining democracy.

    He said: “Through our daily media intervention, through our stimulation of debates on critical national issues and by the consistent efforts to offer our long-suffering people credible democratic alternatives, the rights of Nigerians have been protected.

    “In performing this role, my party has been guided by the highest principles, based on our recognition of the opposition, not only in ensuring the survival, deepening and expansion of democracy, but also in preserving human liberty and guaranteeing justice, particularly in a plural society.”

    The APC chieftain said the ban on #BringBackOurGirls protesters showed how insensitive the government was to the plight of the people.

    Mohammed said: “Unfortunately, brave and compassionate Nigerians, who have abandoned their daily chores to call attention to the plight of the innocent girls and demand their safe return, have themselves come under attack.”

    He said the government’s claim that the opposition was behind the growing Boko Haram menace was unfounded.

    Mohammed said: “Boko Haram is the enemy of the whole world; its activities are not narrowed to ethnics or other inclinations. President Goodluck Jonathan should stop seeing the group’s activities as a conspiracy to bring down his administration.

    “The government should summon a security summit to take a holistic review of the security system in Nigeria with a view to finding lasting solution to it,” Mohammed said.

    He added that the growing poverty in the land was responsible for growing insurgency.

    The APC chieftain urged the government to tackle the problem headlong, instead of crying wolf where there is none.

  • APC Reps to resist plot to oust leadership, weaken opposition

    APC Reps to resist plot to oust leadership, weaken opposition

    Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House of Representatives have said they would resist the moves by those they called external forces to weaken the opposition and destabilise the leadership in the House.

    A top ranking opposition member in the House, who spoke in confidence, alleged that some external forces planned to remove major figures in the leadership of the House on its resumption from the two-month recess.

    The member said the move would be resisted because the opposition has always been the backbone of the House.

    He said: “We have discovered that some people outside the House have perfected a plot to weaken the leadership of the APC with the ultimate goal of ousting the Speaker.

    “By dividing the ranks of the APC, they want to hit at the strong support base the of the leadership.

    “We have found out that they have already recruited some members of the APC to destabilise the leadership and cause confusion.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • Support us to improve Ekiti, Fayemi tells opposition

    Support us to improve Ekiti, Fayemi tells opposition

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has urged members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to see his victory at the Supreme Court as a call to put aside partisan interest and support his administration in rebuilding the state.

    He spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during a thanksgiving service held at the Government House chapel to mark the victory, after six years of litigation.

    Attributing his victory to God’s mercy, Fayemi said God allowed the long judicial tussle to show His mightiness and prove that though the journey may be rough and tortuous, when one is on the path of truth, there will ultimately be triumph.

    He said: “The lesson I take from this is that truth will ultimately triumph and also that God is interested in us when we go astray and pulls us back from the brink to come home and take ownership.

    “I hope my brothers and sisters on the other side of the divide will see this as a golden opportunity to join hands with this administration to take Ekiti to a greater height. That, for me, is the most important lesson we should all take away.”

    Fayemi said the victory also showed that God wanted the administration to continue the good work it started and take it to completion.

    In his sermon, the Bishop of the Ekiti Anglican Diocese, the Right Rev. Christopher Omotunde, said Fayemi’s victory was the handiwork of God, adding that the victory was not brought about by the competence of Fayemi’s legal team.

    He said God wanted His agenda to be fulfilled in the state, hence the peace that followed the verdict.

    The bishop said without peace, there would be no development.

    He urged the governor to shun sycophants and focus on developing the state.

  • ‘Ogun won’t reply confused opposition’

    The Ogun State Government yesterday said it will not dignify the “confused opposition” with a response on the state’s debt profile.

    The Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said she would address all questions about the state’s finances on Friday at a ministerial press briefing.

    Mrs. Adeosun spoke with reporters on Monday in Iperu, Ikenne Local Government Area.

    She said: “I will have a press briefing on Friday and address all financial issues. I will rather do that than react to their confusion.”

    The commissioner was reacting to the claim by a Labour Party (LP) chieftain, Mr. Ladi Adebutu, that the government had “plunged” the state into N200 billion debt.

    When reporters asked Adebutu to substantiate the claim, he could not explain how the “debt” was incurred.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Support Fayemi, senator tells opposition

    Senator Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central District) has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support the administration of Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi.

    He said the time had come for PDP members to contribute to the state’s growth.

    Ojudu was reacting to the Supreme Court ‘s dismissal of ousted “Governor” Segun Oni’s petition.

    Oni was challenging the Appeal Court verdict that declared Fayemi governor.

    In a statement in Abuja, Ojudu said he did not understand the logic behind Oni’s petition, saying it does not take a lawyer to know it was a stillborn from the word go.

    The statement reads: “The judgment lasted less than 20 minutes. The court dismissed the PDP’s case with ignominy. My friend and brother allowed himself to be duped again. I am happy and sad at the same time.

    “I am shocked that someone as educated as my friend, Olusegun Oni, could not assess the situation and seek good advice.

    “Fraudsters in his party set him up and sent him on a journey to nowhere. It is time for all friends of Oni to prevail on him to leave PDP. He does not belong in that crowd.”

    Ojudu congratulated Fayemi, his executive committee members and Ekiti people for yet another triumph of truth over falsehood.

    He described the ruling as a demonstration of God’s love and support for the Fayemi administration.

  • Ogun 2015: Opposition in disarray as Amosun consolidates

    Ogun 2015: Opposition in disarray as Amosun consolidates

    Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, reports the weakened state of the leading opposition parties in Ogun State.

     

     

    Politics in Ogun State usually come with a lot of drama and intrigues, especially between the ruling party on one hand and the various opposition parties on the other. At times, the government is kept panting by a coalition or more of political and interest groups such that whenever the drums of electioneering start to beat, the state goes into a frenzy of some sort.

    Perhaps the above submission explains why observers of the politics of the state are now saying the unusual is the case as the 2015 general election in the state draws nearer. They say while the ruling party continues to take giant political strides on a daily basis, the opposition appears to sink more and more into disarray.

    Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), observers said, are leaving nobody in doubt about their readiness to remain in power beyond the 2015 gubernatorial elections. This readiness is exhibited in the volume of work currently going on across the state.

    “If Amosun and the ACN continue to win the confidence of the people the way they are currently doing with the people-oriented project and services they are dishing out across the state, I doubt if the opposition parties will even find people to listen to them when they eventually put their act together to prosecute the next election,” Comrade Deji Degusen, Chairman of the state’s chapter of the Good Governance Coalition (GGC), said.

    Degusen, who was speaking at a congress of the GGC, said it appears the opposition in Ogun State is saddled with so much infighting that it has been unable to properly engage the state government in any meaningful dialogue.

    “Dialogue between the government and the opposition is healthy for democracy. Some people call it criticism but we call it dialogue. Healthy and positive criticism is more of a dialogue and it is one vital ingredient we need if our democracy must grow.

    Today in Ogun State, the opposition is not engaging the government. The race towards 2015 is here and the opposition is not visible. The leading opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and the Labour Party (LP) have all diminished in visibility and these have left a lot of space for the ruling ACN to grow in visibility and acceptance,” he explained.

    Aare Biodun Ajayi, former Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in the state, shares Degusen’s view. According to the politician, politics is about how the people are feeling.

    “There is no magic in politics. It is all about how the people feel. It is about what or who the people want. Currently, in Ogun State, the people are daily seeing Amosun’s ACN. They are daily seeing the works of his hand. These are the things that will determine where their votes will go when it is time for fresh elections.

    If the opposition parties are up and doing too, then the people will have alternatives to choose from but that is not the case here now. I’m not a member of the ACN but I can tell you that not much is being done to challenge the growing popularity of the governor and his party,” he said.

    The positions assumed by the observers above are not without reasons. Following ACN’s landslide victory in the council poll, held last July in the state, most of the other political parties have practically gone to sleep while the Peoples Democratic Party have been moving from one crisis to the other.

    ACN won 19 chairmanship seats, out of the 20 in the state. The party also won 217 councillorship seats, while the PDP and the PPN won eight and one councillorship seats respectively.

    The commission withheld the results of Imeko-Afon Local Government Council, pending the determination of a court order in respect of the poll in the area.

    Also worried about the leeway a weakened opposition is giving the ruling party ahead of the 2015 general election, the PDP in Ogun West Senatorial District recently urged factions in the party to sheath their swords. It warned that should Ogun PDP continue to carry on with a divided house, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) would remain in power beyond 2015.

    Ogun West PDP, in a statement by party leaders in the zone, including Mr. Kunle Salako, Chief Wale Egunleti, former Forestry Commissioner, Ali Ajibode, Mr. Kunle Akinosi and Evangelist Titus Eweje, among others, urged the factions to dialogue and resolve their grievances.

    It said: “We recognise dialogue as a time honoured veritable conflict resolution mechanism and urge aggrieved stakeholders to shun violence and embrace dialogue and conflict resolution procedures stipulated in the party’s constitution.”

    Another faction of the same PDP had accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of working underground for Amosun’s re-election as governor in 2015. According to his accusers, Obasanjo’s game-plan is to weaken PDP for Amosun to have a smooth sail at the next election.

    Kashamu Buruji, financier of one of the many factions of PDP in the state, said Obasanjo is neck-deep in the re-election strategy of Amosun of the ACN), who is his kinsman from Owu Kingdom.

    Coming from within the folds of the leading opposition party in the state, these statements are further confirmation of the weakened state of the opposition in Ogun State today.

    For the PPN, a subtle merger arrangement being worked out by its leaders with the Otunba Gbenga Daniel faction of the PDP may soon put an end to its very existence.

    The party has been weakened with the return of many of its bigwigs to the PDP after it failed to make any serious impact during the last general election in the state when it fielded Gboyega Isiaka as its gubernatorial candidate. Isiaka is a protégée of Daniel’s.

    “As part of the merger between the two parties, series of meetings have been held and concessions are being sought. We are serious politicians, so we know the PPN alone may not be able to take us to our destination. So, we are willing to merge with another party to achieve our aim,” a party source said.

    The LP, which before now, was also seen as a virile opposition party in the state, has also lost its voice to a severe struggle for its soul by a band of defecting gubernatorial aspirants seeking a political platform to contest the 2015 governorship election.

    “Chief Jide Awosedo is the known leader of our party in the state. He was the gubernatorial candidate and financier of the party during the last governorship election. Though we lost the election, the party was repositioned to offer constructive criticism of the governance of the state.

    “But today, some troublesome politicians, who are bent on disrupting the orderliness within our party, have thrown us into crisis. They want the party’s governorship ticket at all cost even though they have no followers.

    “These people claimed to have defected to Labour Party with their people but it is all lies. They have no followers. They are failed politicians looking for where to rest their tired limbs. They are currently the problems of LP in Ogun State but in no time we will find solutions to these people and move on as we prepare for the 2015 general election,” a chieftain of the party said.

    Thus, with a fast rising political profile to his advantage and a scattered opposition to contend with, observers of the politics of the state say Governor Ibikunle Amosun of the ruling ACN may have only himself to beat in the race to the Government House come 2015.

     

  • PDP will become opposition in 2015, says Onu

    •Yari heads convention committee   

    The National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, yesterday said major opposition parties in the country have concluded plans to merge after their conventions.

    Three major opposition parties – the ANPP, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) – would ensure that their members do not disappoint Nigerians with the merger, he said.

    Onu vowed that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would become the opposition after the 2015 general elections.

    The ANPP chairman spoke in Abuja when he inaugurated the 2013 special convention committee of the party, led by Zamfara State Governor Abdulazeez Abubakar Yari.

    He urged party faithful to remain committed to the merger process.

    Onu said: “Today is historic, because this is the first time in the long history of our country that opposition political parties, which control governments at the state level, have come together to form a new political party. This has never happened before in our country and would in many other countries of the world.

    “By this merger which, by the grace of God, will be completed before long, the individual participating political parties will lose their individual identities to be submerged into the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is definitely in the best interest of the development of democracy, the happiness of our people and the greatness of our nation.

    “With this merger which, by the grace of Almighty God, will soon be completed, it is certain that the way politics is played in our country will change forever. Our dear country will never be the same again. Those in government today should prepare their minds to be in the opposition tomorrow.

    “It is about going a step further to show our fellow countrymen and women that we mean what we say that the ANPP strongly believes in the merger of opposition political parties for the benefit of all. It is about reaffirming our faith in the greatness of our beloved country as well as the power of democracy as an important instrument of good governance and development that will long endure.

    “You must utilise the opportunity, which your membership of this committee demands for us to show that our great party believes in the union of the progressives that is being forged for the common good. You must work in unity as one body of honourable men and women, who are devoted to the happiness of our people and the greatness of our country. Above all, you must focus on the future, for it should be backward never but forward ever!

    “Our country is in great distress. Wherever we look, we see problems and problems. We live in darkness. People feel insecure. Our schools and hospitals are not working as they should. Unemployment and poverty have crippled the dreams and ambition of many Nigerians. Hope for a brighter future has continued to fade for many people, day after day. Things cannot continue this way. There must be a change for the better. The time to effect that change is now…”

     

  • Formidable opposition good for governance – Ali

    Alhaji Sidi Ali, a former Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has called for formidable opposition to enhance good governance in the FCT.

    Ali who made the call on Monday at Gwagwalada in the FCT commended steps taken by opposition parties in the country to merge and form a stronger opposition.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that administering the FCT without credible opposition to ask questions where necessary was not in the interest of democracy and the territory’ residents.

    “Looking at successive ministers appointed for the FCT over time, I cannot remember at any time where there is strong opposition to checkmate the administration of the territory.

    “In either this minister or past ones, I have not seen strong opposition that has raised questions on how finances of the territory were being expended,” Ali said.

    He called on Area Council Chairmen and other political office-holders, particularly those from opposition parties, to ensure that questions were asked where necessary to enhance accountability and good governance in FCT.

    “As far as I am concerned, the merger of opposition parties in the political arena of the country is a welcome development, not for just the political parties but for the entire country.

    `This is because governance without credible opposition is always weak, slow and associated with all sorts of vices since there is always no room for checks and balances.

    “I look at the coming together of these parties to form a formidable opposition as a good check for whichever party that is in government,” the former senator added.

  • 2015: PDP raises panel to woo opposition governors, says Akpabio

    THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday moved to stop its dwindling fortune. It raised a committee to woo opposition governors to its fold ahead of the next general elections in 2015.

    Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio, who doubles as the chair of the PDP Governors’ Forum, said this yesterday in a chat with State House correspondents.

    He spoke after meeting President Goodluck Jonathan.

    According to him, the move to reach out to the governors elected on the platform of opposition parties is aimed at having at least 30 governors under the PDP by next election.

    He, however, declined to name members of the committee, insisting that there was no crack in PDP.

    Akpabio said that the reported overtures by the opposition to some PDP governors would not work.

    Said he: “The only truly national party in Nigeria is the PDP. It is the PDP that can make overtures towards others and we PDP governors are poised to bring our colleagues from the other parties to join us. This is what we are trying to do now.

    “There is no overture that anybody will make, PDP is too large and organised. We have set up a tactical committee to also reach out to the opposition (in quote) because we want to be more than what we are.

    “We started with over 30 governors, now we have been reduced to 23 and there is the need for us to come together. We should be over 30 in the next election and this seems to have rattled the opposition.”

    “I can tell you that even now the opposition is rattled. You can see the barrage of attacks on the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum. This is a sign that the opposition is rattled because there is really no need for the attack.