“I rejoiced at the emergence of APC but I did not expect them to be power-drunk so early in the day. The decision by the APC to use their new majority in the National Assembly to block the passage of 2014 budget is amazing. They should find a way of fighting President Jonathan without seeking to hurt the welfare of millions of Nigerians who depend on the economic activities to be generated around the budget. APC may soon realise that visiting the “sins” of Jonathan on ordinary Nigerians could boomerang, as the US Republicans recently miscalculated against President Barack Obama.”This was Thisday’s columnist “Simon Kolawole
Tanko Yakassai says ” The directive by the APC to block the budget is selfish, reckless, could destroy our democracy… if a budget is not passed you shut down the nation which leads to unpleasant developments. it will affect everyone, all sectors. To do such due to a local issue in Rivers, will amount to carrying politics too far and beyond the limit of political decency”….
The All Progressives Congress, (APC) is a political party whose activities from inception could simply be described as mischievous. It is a gathering or collection of strange bedfellows whose major aim is to generate as much bad blood in the polity as possible. It is against this background that, in order to add more heat into the political space in the country, the party recently directed its members in the National Assembly to prevent the passage of Executive Bills including the 2014 Appropriation Bill, confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office as tabled by the presidency.
Rising from a meeting of its interim National Executive Committee (NEC) held at its national secretariat in Abuja last Thursday, APC said it would encourage its members, especially those in Rivers State, to resist further intimidation by the supporters of the PDP if the police did not refrain from being biased.
Reading the communique to the press, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party shamefully announced that, “Following the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block all legislative proposals including the 2014 budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general”.
It is quite childish; it is obvious that if this order is carried out, Nigeria’s economy and developmental strides will take a nose dive. One wonders if dialogue and other avenues for ventilation of grievances have been conclusively exhausted. Does APC not think that such an attempt will amount to shutting down the country or holding innocent citizens to ransom?” It seems the futility of such an exercise in the United States of America does not ring any bell to the party. Just last year, the Republicans in the US tried to use their strength to hold the country to ransom. The repercussions of that move were obviously not in their favor, as the public came out in mass to reject the move. Citizens openly vowed never to vote for the party again, because of how immature their plans were.
It is glaring that the APC will have themselves to blame if they push further such moves hence many people within and outside the political circles seek power to authoritatively allocate values to the society rather than draw a country backwards or brings it to her knees. If the budget passage process, service chiefs and new ministerial nominees are blocked, what purpose would it serve an ordinary man who is not involved in any form of political struggle? What happens to sectors like health and education, what about the wages of the federal workers”.
It is instructive to point out here, there is nothing inherent absurd if the opposition opposes certain contents in the budget like the Obamacare. Even when the Republicans stalled the passage due toa legitimate issue, the American people felt betrayed because of its chain reaction in the areas of job loss, cut in wages, services etc, while the fat cat legislators move around in posh cars and jets.
However, here the APC wants the budget blocked because Governor Rotimi Amaechi is having issues with the CP in that state, Mbu Joseph. You want to shut down the nation, punish even those who careless about the Rivers issue and all of you in Abuja but just going about their daily activities, and trying to earn a living
One wonders while, a man whose house is on fire is busy going about trying to show brigandage against another instead of first and foremost putting it out at the moment. Crises in the party have reached a crescendo with some states forming parallel units.
At the moments, some stakeholders are at each other’s neck and plotting all the graphs to in states like Kwara, Adamawa, Niger, Kano and Sokoto, Ogun .
Reacting to the move, PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said with the anti-people directive, Nigerians could now see that the PDP had not been crying wolf when it alerted the people that the APC did not mean well for the nation.
PDP said: “In asking that service chiefs should not be confirmed by the Senate, the APC has revealed its devilish plot to undermine the nation’s security system, create a state of anarchy and pave the way to unleash mayhem on the people.”
In trying to frustrate the passage of the 2014 budget, the APC has also exposed its plot to cripple the nation’s economy and plunge the people into untold hardship.”
By attempting to cause confusion in the National Assembly, which is a critical institution of democracy, it is now clear to all Nigerians that the APC has commenced the implementation of its orchestrated plot to truncate the nation’s democracy, push the country into a state of chaos and achieve its doomsday predictions, a plot which must be stopped. But as the PDP and APC took up issue over moves to checkmate the Jonathan administration in the National Assembly, the opposition party’s caucus in the Senate and some PDP senators have accused the Senate President of frustrating moves to defect to APC.
It is troubling when one looks at the stalling of the confirmations of Service Chiefs viz the efforts by President Jonathan to ensure that the national security apparati are properly positioned for effective counter terrorism strategies.
Legally speaking, the instruction is a direct affront on the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government hence any member of the party who complies with such inimical directives will invariably inflict maximum damage to the security and well being of the common man more than anyone else in Nigeria.
It is the height of irresponsibility and political terrorism in the name of opposition politicking. Consequently, the APC has by its crude and devilish political miscalculation exposed their true colors, they have demonstrated that they are desperate power mongers who would sacrifice anything including Nigeria’s thriving democracy for the sake of political power. The fact remains that a party which perambulates about as progressives could throw caution to the dogs by deliberately advocating for a total government shutdown is most unpatriotic and self-serving. We are not surprised but this should tell Nigerians the kind of change they go about chanting.
The Labour Party, even though an opposition party has flayed the All Progressives Congress insisting that such unwarranted action was meant to incite the military against civil authority. National Chairman of LP, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, categorically stated that “to block military confirmation is an attempt to anger the military to think and reconsider their roles in the Nigerian nation and democracy. We are talking about senior military officers who have over the years laid down their lives for the nation and Nigerian people who no doubt deserve appointments to the highest position in their career”.
It is instructive to warn that power mongers and desperate politicians, particularly those who are part and parcel of the story of the present Nigeria must not get themselves involved in any unpatriotic act that could truncate a democracy which many Nigerians fought and died for.
LP told President Jonathan to remain firm and not allow himself to be intimidated by the mischievous antics of the APC political leaders who are so desperate for power that they do not want to wait for 2015 when Nigerian electorates will exercise their inalienable rights to choose their leader.
“We condemn very strongly the extremism and fundamentalism that the APC has come to be associated with. What APC has proposed to do is a recipe for the disintegration of the Nigerian state. It is therefore an ill wind that will blow no one any good. The desire and the quest of APC to win the 2015 presidential election will remain alpine dream if there is no Nigeria for them to govern.”
If the opposition has issues with the content of the budget or they are not satisfied with the President’s nominees no one will stop them from making a genuine case of disagreement but some of the issues raised in that unpopular instruction by the APC has no relevance or any bearing on the budget.