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OPPOSITION
figures on Thursday stepped up the marketing of their newly-christened
joint party, the All Progressive Party, with a promise that the new
platform would bring an end to the rule of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Former governor of Lagos State and
National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, a key component of
the new alliance, Bola Tinubu, described the years of PDP in power as
the rule of “scavengers and wayfarers.”
“What we have now are wayfarers,
scavengers in the corridors of power and apologists, professionals whose
ethics evaporate the moment they come in contact with the paraphernalia
of power.
“But there is help coming. Help is on
the way as the opposition moves to form a broad-based coalition that
will send these characters out of power and put into gear the Nigerian
project.”
Another key figure in the new political
dispensation and an ex-Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, also
enjoined Nigerians to give the APC, an identity unveiled just on
Wednesday, the opportunity to prove itself in rescuing the nation from
those he called “strong men” that had damaged the system.
Tinubu and Buhari spoke in Abuja at the
public presentation of a book, The Accidental Public Servant, written by
a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir
el-Rufai. The el-Rufai book, an expose on the thoughts and words of men
of power during the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo,
had already become controversial before it was presented to the public.
Tinubu said the story of the country had not changed from what it was during the time el-Rufai was in government.
He said that the situation had worsened
with the citizens saddled with a government concerned more about
“elongation in power and fighting imagined enemies” than applying
themselves to running the country properly.
Tinubu, who was represented by the ACN
spokesman, Lai Mohammed, thanked the author for exposing the “unbridled
lust for power” by those in government.
He said, “Thanks to Nasir, we now know
that most of our leaders are soon overcome and consumed by their
unbridled lust for power; Nasir tells us Nigeria still has a long way to
go and the architects of a new Nigeria are not yet in place.”
Tinubu described the book as unrivalled
in the history of the country, noting however that the author could not
exonerate himself from what happened during the Obasanjo administration
which was the focus of the book.
He said, “In as much as Nasir may not
and cannot exonerate himself from all that happened, he has chosen a
road less travelled by telling it all. One of yesterday’s men is coming
clean.
“The power and courage of Nasir’s work
is not just in the carefully woven narrative but in the mere fact that
the key figures he has written about are still alive and perhaps only
one or two of them are dead, hence, Nigerians should expect to get a few
reactions and if lucky see more books churned out by a few who think
Nasir has only told the story of that era from his own angle.”
Buhari said that Nigerians should give the APC a chance to prove itself, assuring that the party would not disappoint them.
The new party consists of the ACN, CPC,
All Progressives Grand Alliance, and the All Nigeria Peoples Party
though Anambra State Government, administered by an APGA Governor Peter
Obi on Thursday dissociated itself from the merger.
In a statement by the Commissioner for
Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Joemartins Uzodike, the state
government also said the Anambra State chapter of the APGA was not a
party to the merger.
The statement said the issue of merger
had never been discussed at the National Executive Committee of the
party and neither had any national convention of the party been called
to discuss the so-called merger.
It rather said that APGA was part of the
PDP-run Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan, having
benefited in appointments from the government.
“Our Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, has never
mentioned any issue regarding APGA merging with any political party in
the executive council meeting of the state,” the statement added.
But Buhari said the new party would
strive to meet Nigerians’ expectations and “I will want the people to
give the party a chance to rescue the country. People talking about the
disintegration of Nigeria don’t know what they are saying; Nigeria is
too intertwined to break up.”
The CPC presidential candidate said the nation needed courageous people like el-Rufai to appeal to the people’s conscience.
He said the nation deserved principled
leadership, noting that the first Premier of the old Western Region, the
late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was spending 55 per cent on education,
while the northern region spent 5 per cent on education and about 56 per
cent on security.
Buhari blamed ‘strong men’ for
destroying the strong institutions in Nigeria left behind by the
colonial administration, adding that el-Rufai’s book was the
ex-minister’s way of reviving the comatose institutions in the country.
Niger State Govenor, Aliyu Babangida, a
PDP member, also at the forum said he was delighted with the new party
being formed by the opposition.
He said, “I am one of those in the PDP
praying for the merger to work; it will rationalise Nigerian politics
and put an end to riff-raffs and charlatans in government.
“People have been coming to me to ask me
if I am interested in the Presidency and I said yes. I am prepared for
The Presidency, I am not an accidental leader; I am prepared for the
Presidency, but I won’t comment on when I will run.”
However, Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, attributed the backwardness of the country to
disregard for merit and competence.
He stressed that important national issues should only be entrusted to capable hands.
Sanusi said, “I always tell people that
our problem is not corruption, but disregard for merit and competence.
In our private lives, we entrust the most important things to people we
trust but we left important national issues in the hands of those with
nothing to offer; People should be judged by their character and not
their affiliations.”
Also, the author, el-Rufai, shed tears, while thanking eminent Nigerians for attending the programme.
Meanwhile,the PDP on Thursday
congratulated those behind the new APC and challenged them to engage the
PDP elected and appointed officials on issues of governance.“
National Publicity Secretary of PDP,
Olisa Metuh, in a statement said, “We charge the opposition to use the
new party to challenge our elected and appointed officers on debates on
issues of governance.
“We are ready, willing and able at any time to debate on any issue pertaining to the economy and any other issue of governance.
“We want useful and constructive debates so that at the end of the day, Nigerians will be the utmost beneficiaries.”
Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah
Ahmed, on Thursday, however, ridiculed the emergence of the APC, saying
it posed no threat to the PDP.
“PDP is not threatened in any form by
the merger. The only challenge that I see in this kind of fusion is that
they are not driven by ideology. They are driven by people and
positions,” Ahmed said in Ilorin during a monthly public enlightenment
programme tagged, ‘The governor explains.’
Punch
Ohio
Gov. John Kasich (R) has joined the growing list of Republican
governors pushing income tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens of his
state, and like those other governors, his plan would raise taxes on the
poor to pay for it. 
