Date Published: 12/05/09

Lagos AC Slam Northern Union Over its Views on Yar’Adua’s Successor.

4 th December 2009.

Press Release.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has berated the Northern Union on its statement that the North will still retain power should Yar’Adua resign or die in office. The party said that such reckless statement demonstrates that the members of the Northern Union do not believe in the unity of Nigeria but are only tagging along because of the undue benefits they derive from the other component units of the country.

In a release, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party says that the position of the Northern Union is dangerous and is capable of rupturing the fragile peace and unity the country is managing at present. It cautions the group not to take other Nigerians as fools who must tolerate the elastic interests of the North, even when they impinge on their own legal rights.

“I believe the Northern Union is well versed in the provisions of the constitution of the country and the matter they are trying to manipulate is explicitly stated in the nation’s constitution. We believe there is no ambiguity in the succession clause of the constitution and if the Northern Union is desirous of creating one, we want to place them on notice that they would not be allowed such fatal fantasy.

“Once again, we sympathize with President Yar’Adua on his present state. We wish him well and hope he will recover to take control of the greatly disorganized government he had been presiding over since 2007. However, we wish to state that the attempt by various groups to sentimentalize the issue of his suitability to continue in office, as well as who succeeds him should he quit or die in office is cheap and dirty blackmail by those that hope to continue benefitting from the institutionalized rot in Nigeria. We state clearly that his suggested resignation does not constitute any blasphemy nor does it portend anything untoward to the Nigerian state, whose should stand paramount in any issue under consideration.

“Lagos AC is firm and unequivocal that should the president decide not to continue in power or dies in power, no other alternative should be considered than adhering to the laws of the land, which states that his deputy should step in to complete his uncompleted tenure. As at today, that is the law and this should be paramount in the minds of any citizen or party in choosing who governs the country and who deputizes for him. The so-called power rotation agreement is alien to the people of Nigeria and is only a convenient ruse the Northern Union invokes when it and other like groups, want to further their narrow interests. We wonder how the Northern Union wants that to supersede the constitution, in its desire to continue appropriating power by all means.

“We want to warn the Northern Union to cease from fanning the embers of hate and division in its inordinate desire for continued power. We wonder if they feel their rash statement will not unleash another round of hate and mistrust among the other component units in Nigeria, especially the volatile Niger Delta region, which will be the primary victim of its noxious statement. We wonder the statement they want to send across to most Nigerians from the South and Middle Belt who feel so peeved by the power hunger that ravages Northern politicians and members of such groups as Northern Union. We ask what the Northern Union has positively done with the power they have been monopolizing since independence when every indices point to the fact that the North remains the most backward section of Nigeria.

“Lagos AC insists that the constitution must be strictly adhered to for the purpose of completing Yar’Adua’s tenure in the event of the president not being able to continue in office. If indeed there is any power arrangement, as the Northern Union insists, it must continue after the completion of the present tenure. We therefore warn the Northern Union and such other groups to stop fanning the embers of discord and crisis or whipping empty and dirty sentiments over those that patriotically call on the president to abdicate office instead of holding fast to power while hospitalized. We want to emphatically state it that the good and well being of Nigeria supersedes that of individual Nigerians”.

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.