Presidency,APC in war words

The Presidency on Sunday blasted APC
leaders saying that they were not only
unprogressive but also describing them as
"politically expired" politicians. However,
the APC reacted swiftly, saying Nigerians
knew very well that most of the PDP
leaders were septuagenarians and
octogenarians.

APC national leaders – Chief Bisi Akande is
74 years, Maj.-Gen. Muhamadu Buhari,70;
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, 61 and Chief
Ogbonnaya Onu, 61. The PDP National
Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, is 76; Board of
Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, is 80
and
Chairman, Disciplinary Committee,
Umaru Dikko, is 77.

But the Presidency, through the Special
Assistant to the President on Public Affairs,
Dr. Doyin Okupe, said with the "politically
expired" leaders in the APC, there was no
way it would be a threat to the PDP.
It added in a statement in Abuja, that it
would be foolhardy for anyone to think
that the APC would be an alternative to the
PDP.

"This fact is further reinforced by the fact
that even its (APC) leadership parades
politically expired, analogue and yesterday
men, including the likes of Akande, Ikimi,
Bello Masari, Buhari, Ogbeh, Bashir Tofa
and their likes, who do not promise any
hope for today's Nigeria and therefore
cannot bring any meaningful change to the
polity," the Presidency added.
Insisting that the membership of the APC
was not progressive, it claimed that the
ideology of the party was not also
impressive.

It said the only common thing that bound
them was the desire to seize power from
the PDP.
The Presidency claimed that President
Goodluck Jonathan was being persecuted
because he was from a minority tribe.

"The membership and composition of the
APC is nothing progressive. They are
ideologically ill defined and seem to have
come together for only one purpose which
is to grab power from the PDP and united
on one sentiment which is their peculiar
hatred for the person of President
Jonathan. Is there an offence in being a
President from a minority tribe?," it stated.

The Presidency said that those who joined
the APC did so because of their hatred for
the President, which it said started since he
won the election in 2011.

The Presidency said, "Those who cooperate
with
them from the North are not true
mainstream northern politicians but rather
anarchists and irredentists who pursue
political power based purely on ethnic
sentiments.

"From the first day of the Jonathan
Presidency, these people have tried all
methods to suffocate his administration
and make it impossible for him to govern.
Immediately the President was
inaugurated, he was made to contend with
a major post-election violence
unprecedented in the annals of our political
history.

"This paved the way for the escalation of
the Boko Haram insurgency to the level
that was totally and absolutely
unimaginable; reducing previous episodes
like the Maitatsine riots and similar
previous sectarian violence in the North to
a child's play.

"It is to the glory of God, tenacity of
purpose and ingenious administrative
capacity of President Jonathan that in spite
of these overwhelming and daunting
security crisis, his administration still
records a most distinguished performance
in terms of delivering dividends of
democracy ever recorded in the annals of
the history of Nigeria.
"Isn't it surprising too that since their
coming together, Nigerians have yet to
know what the APC stands for in terms of
definite agenda? What do they have that is
better than the PDP?
"They have no official manifestoes; rather
what we hear from one leader is a sharp
contradiction from what we hear from
another."
For example, it said Buhari,who is the
leading figure of the APC in the North,
delivered a lecture in London in which he
alleged that he spoke against restructuring
of the Nigerian federation, resource
control, sovereign national conference and
other core demands of the defunct Action
Congress of Nigeria.
The Presidency added that Tinubu went to
a similar event more recently and listed out
APC's proposed programmes on power,
agriculture, and rail transportation which
were not in any way different from the
contents of the Transformation Agenda of
the PDP.
It said in spite of the long years of
existence of the three political parties(ACN,
Congress for Progressive Change and All
Nigeria Peoples Party) that merged into the
APC,they were unable to find credible
personalities among their followers for
national positions and offices.
"The ACN particularly is reputed to always
outsource its presidential candidate to the
PDP. It is not surprising therefore that in
the new party's national executive, six of
its 11 members, which is about 60 per cent
are former chieftains of the PDP," it added.
Because of this, the Presidency said
Nigerians would want to know whether
the APC was different from the PDP or that
it should be regarded "as PDP 2."
Faulting the description of the APC as
consisting of old and expired leaders, the
Interim spokesman for the APC, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, wondered if those leading the
PDP could be categorised as young men
when all of them were in their 70s and 80s.
He added that Nigerians would determine
the fate of APC and the PDP in 2015.
The APC interim spokesman added, "What
Okupe is saying is that the National
Chairman of the PDP is a young man.
"He is saying that the chairman of its Board
of Trustees is also a young man. This is a
party whose national youth leader is about
70 years. Nigerians are not fools. At the
appropriate time, they would decide what
they want."

Share on Google Plus

About mine4u