AT LAST BORNO GETS APC EXECUTIVES AS PARTY AFFIRMS SHETTIMA AS LEADER. After weeks of tussles, State interim executives of All Progressives Congress, APC, were yesterday inaugurated in Maiduguri at the instance of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State. The inauguration puts to an end severe efforts by former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff to supervise the inauguration with his associates insisting he is leader of the party contrary to the partys guidelines that places leadership with Governors in APC controlled states. Sheriff had about three weeks ago stormed Maiduguri in company his Special Assistant and interim National Vice Chairman, Northeast of the APC, Alhaji Umar Duhu with Duhu inviting Shettima to attend the excos inauguration with Sheriff set to supervise the ceremony. Intrigues upon intrigues stalled the ceremony as most of the nominated executives stayed away from venue of sheriffs led inauguration. Yesterday, National Secretary of the APC, Tijjani Tumsa in company of some national leaders of the party, inaugurated the executives under Governor Shettimas supervision. Sheriff alongside Umar Duhu were conspicuously absent at the well attended inauguration that had majority of the partys stakeholders in the State including serving and former national and state assembly members,commissioners, advisers, former executives of the defunct ANPP across the 27 local government areas and 312 wards, senior special assistants, key members and supporters that filled the banquet hall of the Borno State hotel to the brim, venue of the inauguration. Speaker after speaker affirmed allegiance to Governor Shettima as leader of the APC in the State with some calling for reconciliation between him and his estranged political godfather,Sheriff. Most of them commended Shettimas style of governance and the manner he has grown the APC by attracting key state executives and leaders of the PDP as well as party leaders in PDP strongholds into the APC. Speaking at the inauguration, Governor Shettima said he believes in politics without bitterness, noting that life is a quantom for resolution of conflicts between families and friends. The Governor ranked the reign of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National level as one of the worse things in the annals of the black race, insisting that it has done equal damage to the people as slavery and colonialism did. Apart from slavery and colonialism, nothing has befallen the black race than the emergence of PDP. He said the PDP was disastrous and has done Nigerians no good and 2015 is its terminal period at the helm in the country. Shettima said Nigeria has earned billions of dollars, unprecedented in the contemporary history of the country with little or nothing to show for it. This is nothing but a disaster. The governor lamented that: Since the coming of the party into power in the country, it cannot boast of a legacy of providing 5,000 kilometres of roads, 5,000 megawatts of power and 5,000 jobs for millions of youths. He said the APC has come at the right time to rescue Nigerians from the misrule of PDP, noting that the party is set to accommodate all Borno people under one united political entity. The Governor recalled that notable members of the PDP in Borno State have been crossing over to the APC to work for the good of the people of the state,maintaining that they are not regarded as decampees but as take-off stakeholders since the APC recently came into existence. He invited all to join the party in the state which opens membership registration next Wednesday, insisting that: There is no winner, no vanquish situation in the APC, if APC wins it is democracy, rule of law that wins, Earlier during the inauguration of the interim executive of the party, the National Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsa paid glowing tributes to Shettima for working tirelessly in the APCs formative stage as one of its very proactive, foresighted and dogged Governors and also for bringing in many PDP leaders into the party in the State. He reaffirmed that the Governor is the leader of the party in the State as contained in the APCs guidelines. Tumsa also said Borno is at the centre of Nigerian politics and at the centre of APC politics being the first state where the leaders sat together to provide leadership for the party. We profess to provide a change in politics for Nigeria and Borno is already showing example. He added that: The party provides space, a space for internal democracy to thrive. The leadership of the party starts from the wards and local governments, if we provides a good leadership at the grassroots we will provide the party with the opportunity to have good leadership at the national level and I am asking all to work assiduously to making this a great party, we are on the right track towards offering Nigeria with the right democracy and manning government. The newly inaugurated interim chairman of the party, Senator Kaka Malam Yale said it took him time to take up the challenge of running the party because he knows the daunting task required of the founding chairman. He promised that no matter the political affiliation of members in the past, the broom of the APC should be allowed to sweep it away and allowed all to begin on a new slate. He advocated for forgiveness from all, noting that as no one can work together without clashes but personal interest should be relegated on behalf of the good of the party and Borno state. He admonished party members to learn from the late Waziri Ibrahims philosophy of politics without bitterness.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 05:48:39 +0000
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