BARRING
any last change of mind, the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi,
and 27 members of the State House of Assembly loyal to him will be
stopped from attending the national convention of the Peoples Democratic
Party slated for August 31, 2013. Read more
The Minister of State for Education,
Nyesom Wike, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt
shortly after appearing before the Performance Evaluation Committee of
the state PDP.
It will be recalled that the state PDP
had been facing political crisis since April 2013, a development that
led to the suspension of the state governor and 27 members of the House
of Assembly.
Wike explained that though he was not
going to lead the state delegates of the PDP to the national convention,
he was sure that those under suspension would not be part of the event.
The minister said it would not be
possible for any member of the party that had been under suspension to
partake in the activities of the PDP until the suspension was lifted.
“I know that all party chairmen are
delegates; I know that House of Assembly members are delegates.
Unfortunately, some of our House of Assembly members are suspended. That
means they will not be able to participate in the forthcoming PDP
national convention.
“If you are suspended from the party,
you cannot be taking part in the activities of the party until your
suspension is lifted. So it has nothing to do with me,” Wike stressed.
On the speculations that he was
interested in the governorship position of the state, the minister
pointed out that he had not told anybody that he was gunning for such
position, adding that his role was to ensure that the PDP wins the state
in the 2015 elections.
He said, “As per governing the state, if
we are doing something that is not in line with their plans, they
always read meanings to it. Whether anybody wants to govern or not,
nobody is stopping anybody. It is God that gives power.
“My role today is to make sure that PDP
still takes the state. That is what we are doing. If that is their view,
they can die with the view.
“I have never told anybody but if they
feel that I am very active in what I am doing to suggest that there is
something I want to do, that is their own interpretation. But what I
know is that PDP must grow from strength to strength.”
Wike told newsmen that he was in the
state to honour the invitation from the Performance Evaluation Committee
of the state PDP, maintaining that he does not need to disobey the
party.
“I don’t need to disobey the party. If
the party invites me to come for them (PDP) to interact with me, I have
to honour that invitation,” he added.
Reacting to the minister’s position, the
Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Otelemaba Amachree,
said the governor and the 27 lawmakers that were suspended were not
bothered about the convention coming up on Saturday.
Amachree, who spoke though his Press
Secretary, Mr. Jim Okpiki, noted that the state and party were going
through crisis, adding that until the crisis was resolved, it would not
be necessary to bother about attending the PDP convention.
“We are not worried about convention,
because we are currently in a crisis. Until the crisis is resolved, we
are not bothered about the PDP convention. We are only interested in the
return of peace.
“If this (not being part of the
convention) is one of the sacrifices they (governor and 27 lawmakers)
must make to ensure that peace returns to the state and the PDP, they
would not go to ruffle anybody’s feathers,” he said.
The Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Mr. Tony Okocha, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the despite the “illegally concocted suspension against the governor,” he (Amaechi) has remained loyal to the party.
Okocha said, “The governor’s suspension
from the PDP was illegally concocted. One would have thought that they
would waive it. But we are not bothered because it is a family matter
and we are still loyal to the party.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Friday took
a swipe at the newly registered All Progressives Congress, saying its
manifesto could not take the nation to the next level as claimed by the
party leaders.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview with one of
our correspondents in Abuja.
The APC had on Wednesday in Abuja unfolded a seven-point cardinal programme.
The programme includes war against
corruption, food security, integrated transport network and free
education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth and
affordable health care
Faulting the programmes, Gulak said the
opposition party that put security on number 27 on its manifesto could
not be said to be serious with the welfare of Nigerians.
He said since Nigerians were not fools, they won’t entrust their lives to such a party.
He said it was so sad that opposition
party leaders, who were known for their dictatorship, could turn around
to say that President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party were not doing well.
But the APC National Publicity
Secretary, Lai Mohammed, while responding to the Presidency’s criticism,
said Nigerians had only harvested sorrow and blood from the Jonathan
administration.
He stated, “The joke is actually on
the Presidency as Nigerians have only harvested sorrow and blood from
President Goodluck Jonathan’s visionless administration.”
Gulak, in his criticism of the APC,
said, “You can see that they (APC chiefs) are quarrelling over
manifesto. It is still inconclusive.
“That so-called manifesto can’t take Nigerians to the next level of development.
“Which serious party will put security on number 27 on its manifesto?
“They are saying the President and the
PDP are not doing well and yet they are not talking about the railway
that has started working again; they are not talking about the Almajiri
schools that are enrolling many pupils; and they are not talking about
the security challenge that the government is tackling headlong.
“It is so sad that opposition leaders
don’t think? Who are their leaders? Is it (Bola) Tinubu, who replaced a
cerebral person like Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora in the Senate with his
wife and appointed his daughter, who is not a trader as Iyaloja of
Lagos?
“Nigerians are not fools, they can’t
entrust their lives in the hands of people like that. They (the APC
leaders) have yet to start.”
Also, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Labour Party criticised APC’s manifesto.
While APGA suggested that APC should be
judged by the performance of its governors, LP said Nigerians should no
longer be deceived.
The factional National Chairman of APGA, Mr. Maxi Okwu, told SUNDAY PUNCH that elected public officials should implement party manifestoes and not individual programmes.
He said, “My position is that we should
assess the APC from the performance of their governors. When you assess
their governors, you will be able to project how APC is going to look
like. You and I have been in Nigeria and to me, there is no obvious
difference between the APC, PDP and other political parties.
“You can see the performance of Lagos
State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, and that is personal to him. These
days, performance of elected government officials is a matter of
individuals and not the parties, as we had in the Unity Party of Nigeria
and National Party of Nigeria in the Second Republic.
“We don’t have a clear vision of the
APC; parties differ from the other in terms of programmes and policies
and we are not yet there. The cardinal programme of the UPN was very
clear and all the UPN governors went for it.
“But now in Nigeria, it is a matter of
individual governors and their idiosyncrasies. The party must own the
ideology and also the programmes, anybody on the platform of any party
must have to conform.
“The National Assembly is made up of so
many parties and the (other) holier-than-thou party like the APC. They
always join the PDP majority to share money in executive session. I
expected that being in the opposition, they should walk out and refuse
to share in public funds. It happened in the UPN and they walked out
when the NPN did something wrong.”
In his reaction, the National Chairman
of LP, Mr. Dan Nwayanwu, said the APC lacked the magic power to increase
power generation.
He said, “Anybody can claim anything,
the implementation and practicality is another matter. The problem we
have in power generation and distribution didn’t start today, didn’t
start yesterday. It started even when those claiming they will produce
40,000 megawatts were in power and there is no doubt about that.
“So how will they now come back and
bring the magic wand with 40,000 megawatts? Nigerians can no longer be
deceived. All we should do is for all Nigerians to come together and
improve electricity supply. It is their right to claim anything they
like.”
Still hitting back at the PDP, Mohammed
said, “The ASUU strike is entering its sixth week with no solution in
sight. The entire landscape is dotted with deaths and dangers. Millions
of youths are roaming the streets daily aimlessly. Sixty-nine per cent
of our people are living below the poverty line. Poverty in the rural
areas is 73 per cent.
“Under Jonathan’s watch, 40 per cent of
Nigerian children are stunted, nine per cent wasted or thin and 23 per
cent underweight. Clearly, Nigerians know who is fooling them.”
And in a reaction to the Labour Party, Mohammed alleged that the party was suffering from “very short and selective memory.’
He said, “The defunct Alliance for
Democracy under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu pioneered the independent power
project in 1999 before the Labour Party was even registered as a
political party.
“Fashola, another APC governor, is again
blazing the trail in captive energy with the opening of two completed
IPP of 10 megawatts each in Marina and Ikeja. We have the experience; we
have the capacity; we have done it successfully before, so we shall
deliver the 40,000MW as promised.”
by Chukwudi Akasike, Olalekan Adetayo and Friday Olokor
Culled from Punch newspaper
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