. Revolt brewing in APC, says Tinubu campaign council member
By Peter Salami
Mustapha, who made this call in a statement yesterday in Lagos, said Jonathan should heed the call to run for the office of the president again.
“As the nation prepares for the 2027 elections, the Nigeria Rescue Mission Organisation believes that now is the time for all stakeholders to come together and support a candidate who can genuinely represent the interests of all Nigerians.
“We urge former President Goodluck Jonathan to consider this call and to step forward as a candidate who can unite our country and lead us towards a brighter future.
“This appeal comes in light of the numerous challenges currently facing Nigeria, including economic hardship, insecurity, unemployment, and rampant banditry,” Mustapha said.
According to him, there is the urgent need for a leader who embodies integrity, inclusivity, and a commitment to national unity.
Mustapha added: “Nigeria is at a crossroads. We are grappling with significant issues that threaten our stability and progress.
“We need a leader who can bring all Nigerians together, regardless of their background.”
He said that the former Nigerian leader, during his tenure, demonstrated a commitment to democratic values and governance that prioritised the welfare of all citizens. According to him, the group believes Jonathan has the vision and experience necessary lead Nigeria.
“His leadership style is one that fosters inclusivity and economic advancement, which is exactly what our nation needs at this critical juncture.
“Under Jonathan’s leadership, we can work towards restoring Nigeria’s lost glory on the international stage and within our own borders,”
BYO was a youth-based support group of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan lost his second term ambition to Buhari in 2015 presidential election.
The debate on whether Jonathan was eligible to run again or not, having taken oath of office twice as President, was settled when the Federal High Court in Bayelsa had in 2022 ruled that Jonathan could still contest the presidential election.
The presiding judge ,Justice Isa Dashen, who gave the judgement, held that Jonathan’s right could not be stopped by any retroactive law.
According to him, the 2007 general election produced the late Umaru Yar’Adua as president and not Jonathan, stressing that Section 137 could not have a retroactive effect to stop him from contesting for presidency.
Dashen ruled that there was no presidential election conducted in the country in 2010 and Jonathan could not be deemed to have been sworn into the office of the president that year.
..Presidency, opposition trade words over one party state.
Meanwhile, the Presidency, in a statement yesterday labelled those accusing President Bola Tinubu of plotting to foist a one party state on Nigeria as alarmists.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, insisted that his principal, Bola Tinubu, is not plotting a single-party state as being speculated.
Former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Sheme NHIS), Usman Yusuf, among others had accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of trying to silence critics and supress dissent.
Speaking during an interview on Arise TV yesterday, Yusuf, accused President Tinubu of scheming to plant a one party state in Nigeria.
Recall that last week, the former Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, and his successor, Sheriff Oborevwori, both key members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, crossed over to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The development raised concerns that the country was gradually drifting towards a single-party state ahead of 2027, when the next general elections will unfold.
But Onanuga dismissed those fears, stating that democracy is not under any threat in Nigeria. He said that accusations suggesting the administration is moving towards authoritarianism are baseless and exaggerated.
He wrote: “We have read the alarming claims of disgruntled opposition figures, some partisan human rights crusaders and emergency defenders of democracy over recent defections of key members of opposition parties into the governing All Progressives Congress.
“The seismic shift caused by Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno’s open declaration of support for President Bola Tinubu, the defection of the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, the former vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, and the principal political actors in Delta and Rivers States certainly threw the opposition and their sympathisers into disarray.
“While the opposition elements are understandably heartbroken over the failure of their fabled grand coalition to gain traction, we find it disturbing that they resorted to peddling false allegations of promoting a one-party state against President Bola Tinubu, who is working very hard to reverse decades of economic mismanagement in our country.”
“We must add that there’s no policy, official action, or directive from the Presidency seeks to ‘dismantle democracy’ or ‘weaken opposition or create a one-party state.’ Accusations of bribery, blackmail, and the weaponisation of state institutions only exist in the idle minds of politicians and their agents who have failed in their assigned role of opposition and are fishing for scapegoats.
“The opposition cannot blame President Tinubu and the governing APC for their poor organisation, indiscipline, and gross incompetence in managing their affairs. It is certainly not part of President Tinubu’s job to organise or strengthen opposition parties.
“We find it curious that those who celebrated the defection of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the formation of a regional grand coalition with the sole aim of defeating President Tinubu in the 2027 election are the same people shedding crocodile tears over Nigeria’s so-called drift to a one-party state and authoritarianism.
“While the latter-day defenders of democracy raised no anxious voice against the disgruntled politicians cobbling an anti-Tinubu, anti-APC coalition along dangerous regional lines, even before INEC blows the whistle for party politicking, they are quick to ascribe the political shifts in some states to ‘bribery, blackmail, and coercion’ without any shred of evidence.
“Without any equivocation, freedom of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of choice are part of the cherished ideals of democracy. When politicians and citizens cannot freely join any association or political party of their choice or cannot openly express their views, democracy is imperilled. Those opposed to the Tinubu administration should understand that they can issue diatribes, without fear, against the government because we practise a thriving democracy.
“It is hypocrisy writ large when opposition politicians and their collaborators in the ‘human rights’ movement desire that the party of the President should implode so they can gain electoral advantage and cry wolf when their wish does not materialise.
“We want to state that democracy is not threatened or undermined simply because politicians exercise their rights to freedom of association. Nigerians migrating to the APC and expressing support for Tinubu are doing so out of their free will, based on the belief that the reforms being executed are in the interest of Nigerians and the unborn generation. It is a gross disservice to democracy in itself for these emergency defenders of democracy to delegitimise the political choices of some Nigerians while upholding the choices of others to form a coalition against Tinubu and APC.”
Onanuga also insisted that President Tinubu and the National Working Committee of APC, under the leadership of Abdullahi Ganduje, deserve commendation for making the ruling party viable and attractive to all Nigerians willing to participate in the democratic process.
He described Tinubu as an avowed democrat and a firm believer in multiparty democracy. His political activism and democratic credentials in galvanising and strengthening opposition platforms as a force that defeated a sitting President and the then ruling party attest to his credibility as a tested defender of multiparty democracy.
“We urge all Nigerians to join hands with the administration in protecting our democracy by respecting our people’s choices and giving alarmists, who draw their narratives from the pool of fiction, a wide berth,” he submitted.
..Revolt brewing in APC, says Onokpasa, Tinubu campaign council member
But APC Presidential Campaign Council Member, Jesutega Onokpasa, a lawyer, dismissed the defections as having no significance for the 2027 electoral fortunes of President Tinubu.
In a stinging appraisal that has been shared across several social media platforms, Onokpasa excoriated the Tinubu administration, saying that governance is not about “people defecting to our party, it is about us ruling well. We have failed woefully to rule well, to provide food for Nigerians, to give them succour in these hard times.
“ I can tell you that if we continue this way, all these defections will not help us in 2027. If nothing changes, President Tinubu will end up as a one term president, quote me anywhere… I am a a foundational member of the APC and I’m not leaving it for anybody.
“We cannot pretend that there’s no hunger in the land. When Tinubu called on us to support him, he promised to make food cheap and easily available. We were being insulted and called “agbadorians;”
We told him then that let us just make food available to Nigerians. But right now only God knows what is happening.
“We in APC who came together to put him in power will come together to remove him from power. I can assure you of that… We will not work against our party, but from within APC those of us who are dissatisfied with Tinubu will work against him,” Onokpasa said.
“There will be no implosion in APC, and we are not defecting to any other party. We in APC put our president in power and it is us that will remove him from power,” the APC chieftain told Arise News.