Interim National Chairman, All
Progressive Congress, Chief Bisi
Akande
The All Progressives Congress has
assured Nigerians that it is ready
to reverse the prevailing gloomy
situation in the country.
The party, in a statement in Lagos
by its Interim National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
said that 2014 would be a year of
change for long suffering citizens.
It accused the Peoples Democratic
Party government of misrule in
the last 14 years.
The APC said, ‘’Because this
government (the President
Goodluck Jonathan administration)
has become numb to reason;
because this government has
deteriorated from cluelessness to
hopelessness and because this
government has totally lost any
sense of direction, we say it is
time for Nigerians to gird their
loins and join hands with all those
who are seeking genuine change.
“To adapt Mahatma Gandhi’s
timeless quote, Nigerians must be
the change they wish to see in
their country, and the year 2014
must be our year of change’’
But the Presidency described the
New Year message of the APC as a
ranting of a dying political party.
Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed
Gulak, said this in an interview
with one of our correspondents.
Gulak said Nigerians should not
take the party seriously because it
had no democrats in its fold.
He said the APC leaders would not
recognise the fact that the PDP
was still the best until the
opposition party tests its
popularity among Nigerians at the
poll.
He said, “That statement is a
ranting of a dying political party.
They should not be taken
seriously.
“APC is a party of undemocratic
elements. Let them test their
popularity at the poll and see that
the PDP is the best.
“Who are the democrats among
them? Is it Tinubu who replaced
Senator Olorunmbe Mamora in
the Senate with his wife? Is it
Tinubu who replaced his late
mother with his daughter as the
Iyaloja of Lagos despite that she is
not a market woman? Is it Nyako
who just joined them?”
Also, the PDP National Publicity
Secretary, Chief Olisah Metuh, said
that the ruling party was not
surprised by the APC’s assessment
of the government.
“I don’t expect the APC to say that
the PDP has done well. I don’t
expect them to say there is
agricultural revolution going on. I
don’t expect them to commend
the President for establishing
universities of technology,” he
said.
Metuh reminded the opposition
party that change of government
could only come through the
ballot box in 2015.
But the APC insisted that
Nigerians should go into the New
Year with an unyielding
commitment to be part of efforts
to set the country on the path of
growth and development.
It said, ‘‘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.”
The party said that elections in the
country should be free, fair and
credible.
It stated, ‘’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.”
The opposition party said the year
2013 was among the worst for the
citizenry.
The APC said, ‘’They say President
Jonathan’s achievement in 2013 is
unprecedented, yet Nigerians
celebrated the Christmas and New
Year holidays in unprecedented
pitch darkness and an
unprecedented number of our
youths are unemployed.
“They say they are winning the war
against corruption, yet key
government officials, including the
so-called Coordinating Minister of
the Economy, do not even know
how much Nigeria earns from
crude oil and gas sales, and what
happened to N12bn earned from
domestic crude lifting. They are so
eager to cling to any straw of
‘achievement’ that they are
celebrating the revival of the
locomotive engine in the 21st
century.”
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