APC mobilises against Jonathan, visits Obasanjo

APC mobilises against Jonathan, visits
Obasanjo
on december 22, 2013 at 1:32 am in headlines
*To consult with Shagari, Ekwueme, Danjuma
*Embattled President, NASS members in midnight
consultations
By Jide Ajani
The cloud overhang of mass mobilization that the All
Peoples Congress, APC, has engendered appears to
be getting heavier with the visit of the party’s
leadership to former President Olusegun Obasanjo
at his Abeokuta residence.
But the APC hierarchy would not stop at that,
Sunday Vanguard can reveal authoritatively.
In fact, also slated for consultation in the coming
weeks by the party’s top brass are Second
Republic President and Vice President, Alhaji Shehu
Usman Aliyu Shagari and Alex Ifeanyichukwu
Ekwueme,
respectively, and former Minister of Defence,
Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. Before yesterday’s
visit, the party leaders had consulted with  former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar as well as two
former military leaders, General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
One of the party leaders in attendance at the
meeting with Obasanjo told Sunday Vanguard that
the “ill-wind blowing in the country as a result of the
mis-governance of President Goodluck Jonathan is
ominous and most right thinking leaders as opposed
to the sycophants surrounding the President are
worried.”
The leader pointed out, “Even those we have so far
visited and those we are going to be visiting are
also concerned”.
According to him, “what we are doing is not
scouting for leaders to come and join the party.
What we just want to establish is that since we are
all stakeholders and what binds us is the unity and
stability of the Nigerian state, we are consulting with
the elder statesmen with a view to sensitizing them
to the moves we are engaging so that they are in
the know.
“And whereas we are not recruiting them into our
mission and vision, we would not want them to
create obstacles on our way to rescuing Nigeria
from a clueless administration.”
Yesterday’s meeting, sources confirmed , had been
fixed long before the defection of the five Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, governors.
From left; Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo State; APC
leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; Gen. Muhamodu
Buhari; Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Interim National
President, Chief Bisi Akande, Gov. Nyako of
Adamwa state and other chieftains of the APC
during their visit to Obasanjo at Abeoukuta,
yesterday.
Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu, led the pack of other APC leaders, including
the party’s Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi
Akande; former head of state, General Muhammadu
Buhari; former Borno State governor, Senator Ali
Modu-Sheriff; Senator Bukola Saraki; and  Alhaji Lai
Mohammed to the meeting with Obasanjo.
The APC leaders and the PDP governors who
defected started trickling into the former
president’s  Hilltop Mansion from 5:22pm when
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State arrived
in company of the former Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC,
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; and a former Minister of
Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
Other APC governors at the meeting are Rochas
Okorocha (Imo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Abdulfatah
Ahmed (Kwara), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu
Kwankwaso (Kano), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos) and
Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).
The Chairman of the New PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje,
led some of his members to the crucial meeting.
`Be APC navigator’
In his remarks, Tinubu begged Obasanjo to be the
navigator for the APC.
“You have come out of tribulation and held the
highest position in this country. We are here
because of your courage and salient points. Nobody
can say he has information more than you,”the APC
leader said.
“You have surmounted  a number of crises. Nigeria
is divided more than before. To realise a stable
Nigeria, we want to encourage you to continue to
speak the truth. We have resolved and determined
to rescue Nigeria. We want you to be our
navigator” .
The interim National Chairman of APC, Akande,
explained the rationale behind the meeting with
Obasanjo.
He said, “We have come to introduce our party to
you; we are in the support of the 18-page letter
written to Jonathan, you are capable”.
Speaking on behalf of APC governors, Imo State
governor, Okorocha, urged the former president to
be upright.
He said: “You should be upright on the issue of
Nigeria. Many of the governors passed through your
political school, the battle is for the generation on
board. It is a task that must be done”.
Responding, Obasanjo declared that the APC has
been enhancing democracy in Nigeria  through its
reactions to issues.
The former president begged the opposition party
to play politics without bitterness.
He, however, turned down the request to become a
member of the APC. ” I am a card carrying member
of the PDP but the politics I play traverses Nigeria,
Africa and world in that order,”Obasanjo said.
” I am a democrat and one of the essential
ingredients of democracy is opposition. A
democracy that has no opposition built into it is not
democracy.
“As an opposition, you are enhancing democracy,
you are at home, you are welcome to being at
home. As time goes on, I will just appeal that the
politics you play is politics without rancour, without
bitterness, with decency, that has Nigeria at heart. I
am an incurable optimist about Nigeria. I am totally
committed to Nigeria and nothing will divert me
from that commitment”.
Obasanjo declared himself as a political father who
has no rival, saying, “In whichever party, for
whatever office that contested or aspired in Nigeria
since 1999, such a person, young or old man or
woman can claim to be my political child and I can
claim to be by virtue of  the political office I have
held. I can also claim to be political father; so, you
are here and you are welcome”.
Crucial Consultations
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has
initiated moves to placate members of the National
Assembly as he has been having series of nocturnal
meetings with members and the leadership of the
National Assembly.
Since Monday, Jonathan was said to have been
meeting with members and leaders of the National
Assembly individually to find a common ground on
some of the issues agitating the minds of the
legislators.
The meetings, it was gathered, began when the
issue of impeachment of the president was
broached by members of the opposition APC over
alleged breaches of the constitution.
So far, Jonathan has met with the Leader of the
Senate, Senator Ndoma Egba, the Deputy Senate
Leader, Abdul Ningi, and  the Deputy Senate,
President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, culminating in
a midnight meeting with the speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Though details of what was discussed at the
meetings could not be ascertained, the recent
defection of some members of the PDP in the
House of Representatives to the APC as well as the
call for the impeachment of the president by the
APC may have featured in their discussions.
Sack defected lawmakers, PDP tells INEC
In a related development, the PDP has written to the
Chairman, Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, asking
him to declare vacant the seats of the 37 members
of the House of Representatives who dumped the
party for APC.
In  a letter to INEC, dated 19 December,  2013, the
party said there were no factions in its fold as it
remains one PDP, just as it stressed that what the
lawmakers did was contrary to the Constitution of
the party and that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The letter, signed by the PDP National Chairman,
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National Secretary,
Professor Wale Oladipo, and the National Legal
Adviser, Victor Kwon, asked INEC to immediately
conduct elections in the defected lawmakers
constituencies against the backdrop that what they
did was cross-carpeting.
According to the PDP, INEC must declare the
lawmakers seats vacant and conduct elections
unless they have a change of mind, adding that it
has no factions as observed by INEC and upheld by
the court.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that the PDP took the
decision to write INEC for fear of losing the majority
in the lower chambre of the House just as members
of the PDP say the APC could only take charge of
the House if its members hit 181, basing their
argument on the rule that requires a simple majority
to take over the leadership.