*Embattled President, NASS members in midnight consultations
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.
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".
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.
Via: Vanguard
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