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.
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