Don’t Throw Nigeria Into Crisis, Okupe Warns APC • Says Jonathan Has Constitutional Right To Re-contest IRKED by what he termed a do-or-die manner members of All Peoples Congress (APC) are conducting themselves ahead the 2015 elections, Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has warned the opposition party against throwing the country into crisis. He also said the Constitution allows Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015. But, he admonished some top members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), particularly some governors who are romancing with APC, to quickly retrace their steps. Okupe who was a guest of Kaduna-based Liberty Radio said yesterday, that it was unfortunate Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and some other PDP governors have allowed themselves to be used by opposition.” He described APC as “a house that was built on faulty foundation. This is a party that was put together not for the interest of the country but personal aggrandisement. When you build anything on premises that are evil, it will not stand the test of time. “If you come together just because we hate Jonathan, saying that we cannot allow this Niger Delta person to continue in government, it is wrong. Secondly, APC members are united and brought themselves together not because they want to help Nigerians in any form but they just want power for personal aggrandisement. Bola Tinubu has seemingly conquered the South-west. Like Napoleon, he wants to expand frontiers. He wants to come to the National scale and expand his business empire.” “Buhari believes that Obasanjo has been a military President, he was later elected, therefore he wants to follow his steps, and then he also feels why would he not be able to get power under a democratic system. Where is Nigeria in the dreams of APC? Apart of what they say by mouth, We must have thought that a party that has for more than 3, 4, 5 even now7 years to come together, the first thing to show Nigeria is it’s manifesto”. “ Up till tomorrow the party has no manifesto. They are just going around gallivanting and parading themselves like serious people. 70 percent of the membership of the APC are former PDP people who have expired. So what knew thing are they coming up with. In fact, many of them are PDP relegates, people that PDP has thrown away. They are people whose ideas have no bearing or relevance on where Nigeria intend to be in the nearest future”. “People who cannot contribute or redirect the ship of state, people who have ideology within themselves except hatred and ethnic chuvenism or personal aggrandizement. This is not the change Nigeria wants”. The Presidential spokesman on Public Affairs stressed further that “Jonathan is a man that means well for the country, but for some people because of where he comes from, because of his religion, and for others because he is still sitting on our time-table, we ought to have been there they are ganging up against him” . Said Okupe: “the challenge we have now were created by people with evil desires. And they are very powerful, they control the media and they make it more difficult. This President came under a circumstances of a controversy. The North felt that with the demise of late former President Umaru Year’adua , that region should continue to produce the leadership”. “So, anything that did not follow that course, they were not ready to deal with him. So that was a major problem. And then they looked down on Jonathan, who is this person that is coming and where is he coming from, we don’t even know him because he comes from the most remote part of the country. To some other people he was like an affront”. “They are saying that when we are contesting for power these are not the people that should be defeating us. It is a very deep seated problem”, Okupe added. Though he explained that Jonathan has not made up his mind to vie for the Presidency in 2015, but pointed out that nothing could stop him to do so if he so desires to contest as an eligible Nigerian citizen. Okupe said: “President Jonathan has not told me or anybody that he wants to run again. But, all the heat all over the country is because of the fear that he will run. But, in a normal circumstances nobody should stop anybody from exercising a right that is guaranteed by the constitution”. “It is either we want a democracy or not. If Jonathan decides to run and you are not happy about it, go to the poll and defeat him. See what happened in Mali. Mali fought a war, finished the war and in less than six months they had organised election. The election was indecisive, and decided to go into a runoff among two major contestants”. “One of the contenders said the election was marred with fraud. But when the results were announced the man went with his family to congratulate the winner, and now Mali is moving on. If we are not careful we would be there shouting that Jonathan must not be president in 2015 and a small country like Mali will overtake us”. “So, Nigerians must wake up. What is 4 years in the life of a nation? Is it worth burning a country, is it worth destroying our democracy, or damaging the manifest destiny that is so rousy in this nation”. On the crisis in Rivers State and the problem of some PDP governors joining the opposition against President Jonathan, Dr. Okupe said: “River state crisis is no crisis. It is an opportunity for people who are fighting Jonathan to hold on to something that seems real and use it against him”. He stressed further, “for instance, you had about 5 governor who said they were motivated to go around the country because of Rivers state crisis. Is that not amazing? What is the crisis in Rivers? Who is Amaechi and what is the issue about that the whole country is being disturbed because of something that happened at the Nigerian Governors Forum”? “What is the Governor’s Forum to the destiny of this country. The Rivers crisis was what some people cling on to in fanning anti-Jonathan emotion and continue to oil the hatred against Jonathan. And because of Amaechi’s riches he decided to offer himself to the opposition as a willing tool. What you are seeing is an over dramatization of the preparation for 2015”.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 08:37:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015