“Come and join us”: Bisi Akande extends APC invitation to Jonathan

by Oge Okonkwo

The interim national chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande stated in Abuja yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan is welcome to the All Progressives Congress (APC), if he is tired of the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) disclosing that the  presidential candidate of the party for 2015 general election will emerge after the party’s convention in December this year.

Chief Akande said that the is open to anyone who is willing to join. In a statement made by him, he said:  “We listen to some people talking about presidency; no, we have not reached that stage at all. Our major preoccupation is to set up the structure of our party — the All Progressives Congress. It is after that, maybe in November or December when we hold our national convention, where our national executive will be elected; there is no idea about who becomes president, governor or anything. But the only exception is Anambra State and a committee is already working on that. And we are going to register our members in Anambra State. We are going to conduct congresses and elect a candidate that will contest on the platform of the APC.”

Leadership reports:

“In Nigeria today we don’t know any other APC apart from this All Progressives Congress, and we don’t contemplate anything and nothing will happen to move this APC out of place. We remain a party and we shall remain a party forever to rule this country Nigeria,” Akande added.

Akande, who spoke yesterday during the party’s maiden press conference held at the party’s national secretariat, said the major pre-occupation of the party now is to set up its structures and lay a solid foundation from the wards to the national level.

The protem national chairman further said that a committee headed by the national deputy chairman, Hon. Aminu Masari, has been set up to advise the party on how to establish structures and activities below the level of the national interim executive.

He warned those arrogating authority to themselves to desist from such act, saying that Alhaji Lai Mohammed is the authentic spokesman of the APC.

He said: “People are anxious to be part of the APC, but because the party has not given the directive some people are just talking on behalf of the party. We are putting a stop to that. Any statement about APC should emanate from the national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

“And whatever he tells you, you should know, is the mind and the decision of APC. We are warning: all people arrogating positions to themselves are all unauthorised. All those who are printing papers, printing forms, calling rallies in the state in the name of APC, they are not yet authorised. The authority will soon begin to flow down from the national level to the state level and to the local government. And when it is going to be done, the national publicity secretary will keep you informed.  We want to be very careful and we want to do our thing in a very orderly way. We are building a structure from the foundation up and not from the top down.

“The parties that held convention to merge are the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Those three parties went to convention to certify that they wanted to merge into APC. But a chunk of APGA had indicated in their membership that they are going to join APC and almost the entire DPP had indicated that they are coming to join APC. And we don’t even close our door to PDP; if Jonathan is tired of the crisis in the PDP he is welcome in the APC.”

On the needs of the party, he said that the immediate priority of the party is to set up its structure.

 

APC’s invitation to Jonathan is hypocrisy – PDP

Faulting the APC’s invitation to Jonathan, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr Tony Caesar Okeke, said the demand of the APC for Jonathan to join it smacks of hypocrisy.

He said, “This is just very funny. This is the hypocrisy in the APC that we are talking about. One moment they falsely shout that the president is incompetent; the next moment they are begging him to come and join them. Well, like one of our former leaders would say, we are just laughing.”

 

We will dislodge PDP in 2015 – Buhari

Former head of state and 2011 presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has restated the determination of the new All Progressives Congress (APC) to push the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of power in 2015. He assured Nigerians that the party would give them new life and hope.

Buhari, who spoke in his Kaduna office yesterday when he received members of the Democratic Emancipation Movement on a courtesy visit, thanked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for registering APC.

Refusing to rule out the idea of running for president in 2015, Buhari said: “My decision will be tied to the constitution of the APC; if the party chooses me as its candidate, I will contest.  If they do not consider me, I will not contest but I will still support the party. My decision to run in 2015 will solely be the party’s decision.”

Gen. Buhari also spoke on the merger journey: “I have thought about this merger since 2007. This is because I found out that none of the opposition parties could challenge the PDP successfully. But if we come together with those that have representation at the National Assembly and the state assemblies, and go back to sensitize our constituencies, even if the PDP wants to rig they would find it impossible to rig.

“I discovered that by being so divisive we made ourselves very vulnerable. So, the best way to survive and for this country to stabilise is we just have to come together, and I believe along the line we made necessary sacrifices.”

Thanking INEC for the registration of the APC, Buhari stated that the journey to the registration was memorable, adding that INEC deserved commendation for acting as a true electoral body.

He said: “To be honest, we have to thank INEC, because when we thought we had applied according to the 2010 Electoral Act, the INEC drew our attention to the Electoral Act that says there must be a headquarters at the federal capital that is good enough to be called a headquarters of a national party; then our constitution, our manifesto, the harmonisation of the main three parties.

“We thought that the initial nine signatories were enough to manage the party in the interim between registration and convention, but INEC advised us and told us that we needed to get at least 25 or 35 people to come out from the geo-political zones to sign.”

On why INEC deserves commendation, Buhari said: “If the INEC wanted to be wicked, they could have kept mute and just sent us a letter that our application was not complete; they could have done that. But for them to send us an observation which was later corrected, I believe they have been very impartial and we thank them for that.”

He noted: “Tension has already come down; people now think that they have a viable alternative. This feeling, I believe, is across the country, not only in the north or in the south-west. There is a good feeling about the party in all the geopolitical zones of the country.

“Our next important step is the mobilisation of constituencies to make sure that elections are conducted according to law.”

He recalled that “in 2003, 2007, 2011, a lot of disgraceful things happened during those election years”, saying that the party faithful are trying now to put the structure of APC on the ground from the ward level to the national with the hope of giving Nigerians hope and capturing power.

He added that “those that are going to be in charge of the party from now to the convention are the people that are very committed to the party’s stabilisation of the system and political strength of the country. We have started working hard to ensure that we avoid problems”.

Buhari further acknowledged the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s efforts in opening the democratic space for registration of more parties, saying that his legal battle up to the Supreme Court in this matter was worthy of note: “It was the late Gani Fawehinmi who took the letter I wrote and went to the Supreme Court to stop the ruling party from denying other parties registration. We all thank Gani Fawehinmi for his foresight to challenge the matter at the Supreme Court.”

Speaking earlier, the Leader of the Democratic Emancipation Movement, Mr Tom Maiyashi, said: “We know that there were a lot of sabotaging efforts by the enemies of progress to ensure that APC was not registered, but finally it has been registered. The registration of the APC marked a point in the political history of our country, that will mark the beginning of a watershed in the political struggle of Nigeria.

“In fact the PDP is very lucky that the APC is registered, because the registration of APC has doused a lot of tension in the country. People now have hope that there is an alternative. It was not an easy thing, but we have an alternative. The monster that is called PDP will be drifting out of stage by the year 2015.”

 

Buhari’s stance lacks substance – PDP

In a reaction, the acting national publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr Tony Okeke, said there is no substance in the statement by Buhari because PDP remains the only democratic dominant national party.

He told LEADERSHIP last night that “the PDP is the dominant national party which by far enjoys better acceptance than the APC”.

Okeke said:  “Nigerians have seen the APC leaders for who they are. They have no democratic credentials, no respect for internal party democracy and their stock-in-trade is imposition. So there is no way such a party would flush out the PDP because it is not acceptable to the people, unlike the PDP which is humane and has the interest of the people at heart, which is in consonance with the transformation agenda of  President Goodluck Jonathan that is at work.”

 

Deliver on your promises or forget 2015, Yoruba leaders tell Jonathan

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Yoruba community in the 19 northern states has told President Goodluck Jonathan to deliver on his campaign promises to Nigerians or forget his 2015 ambition.

The Yoruba community leadership stated that it was unfortunate that Jonathan and Vice President  Namadi Sambo were already planning on how to retain their positions beyond 2015, while they have failed to deliver their previous promises.

The chairman of the community in the 19 northern states and the FCT, Alhaji Mohammed Arigbabuwo, stated this  when he received the leadership of Peace Revival and Reconciliation Foundation who paid him a courtesy call in his office in Kaduna yesterday.

According to Arigbabuwo, the Yoruba community in the 19 northern states stood firmly behind the president to ensure his victory in the 2011 presidential election in the hope and prayer that he would take the country to the promised land, but he has failed to deliver on his promises.

“Until he fulfils his promises to Nigerians, he is not going to get the support of the northern Yorubas come 2015,” he said. “It is disheartening to know that a president would promise the people and he will not deliver on his promises. We supported him in the 2011 elections but so far he has not delivered on his promises; so we are not going to give him our support until he delivers on his promises.”

Earlier, the leader of the foundation, Pastor Yohanna Buru, said they had come to solicit partnership with the Yoruba community in their struggle to ensure that peace reigns supreme in the state and Nigeria at large.

He stressed that the need to live together as brothers and sisters cannot be overemphasized and called on all and sundry to imbibe peaceful coexistence irrespective of tribe and religion differences.

Comments (3)

  1. apc has no agender to invite jonathan.most of them are boko haram suponsors.we are not talking about party any more.we need good leaders not rulers.when imo people voted rochas,the only vote leader not party.nigerians knows what they coming for.in the name of apc

  2. apc has no agender to invite jonathan.most of them are boko haram susponses.we are not talking about party any more.we need good leaders not rulers.

  3. APC will give him ticket for LGA chairmanship.

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