Few days ago Professor Pat Utomi lamented that interlopers and agents of
\ndarkness have hijacked our CHANGE PROJECT again. In that piece, Utomi
\nreflected on the June 12 1993 Saga and the sordid event of June 23 1993
\nand the formation of the Concerned Professionals. Prof Utomi lamented that
\nwe lost the June 12 1993 as a result of the kind of complacency and
\npolitical idiocy that is playing itself out today in Abuja. In our very
\nown eyes we saw how SDP Chieftains started romancing with IBB and Abacha
\njunta until Chief Abiola\u2019s Vice President, Baba Gana Kingibe, SDP Chairman
\nTony Anenih, Ojo Maduekwe and others joined Abacha to destroy and bury
\nChief MKO Abiola\u2019s mandate. Human rights activists, pro-democracy
\nactivists, concerned professionals, Trans Africa, Lawyers, etc spoke out
\nagainst the annulment but their voices were swallowed by the vicious and
\ndangerous voices of Abacha\u2019s men. The rest is now history but we lost
\nhundreds of Nigerians including the winner of that election, Chief Moshood
\nAbiola, his wife Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane, Bagauda Kaltho, Suliat
\nAdedeji, Dr Omatshola, Admiral Elegbe, Admiral Olu Omotehinwa, etc. Had
\nNigerians stood up in great numbers to defend Chief Abiola and June 12
\n1993 mandate, Nigeria would have been a better place today.<\/p>\n
In 1999 when the June 12 war ended, the same group of never do wells
\nseized the centre stage again to continue to decimate Nigeria and for 16
\nyears, they tormented us, humiliated us, maimed us, killed us, pillaged
\nour common patrimony and destroyed all things we hold dear. Everything
\nthey touched turned to ashes. Every sector just refused to work. They
\ncame, they saw and the plundered. Time and space will not permit me to
\nrecall what we went through in the last sixteen years in the hands of PDP.
\nThey abused and told us they will rule Nigeria for 60 years. They beat us,
\ndivided us with guns and money, they killed Chief Bola Ige, Harry Marshal
\nFunsho Williams, General Azazi, Aminosari Dikibo, Ogbonnaya Uche, Ayo
\nDaramola, Bayo Ohu, Godwin Agbroko, Dipo Dina, Chief Layi Balogun, Odunayo
\nOlagbaju etc.<\/p>\n
Now, from just one state (Lagos) in 2003, the progressives led by Asiwaju
\nBola Ahmed Tinubu, President Buhari and others began to work, from AD to
\nAC to ACN. ACN then teamed up with other legacy parties like CPC, ANPP and
\npart of APGA and the new PDP led by Amaechi and others to form APC.\u00a0 APC
\nhit ground running and in March 28 2015, the change came and General
\nBuhari emerged as the President on the platform of APC. APC won majority
\nvotes in the senate, House of Reps and even among the Governors. Now after
\nelections APC leaders met severally and agreed on candidates for the
\nSenate leadership and that of House of Reps. But something unthinkable and
\nbizarre took place in the Senate and House of Reps on june 9, 2015. As 51
\nAPC Senators were having a meeting at the International Conference Centre
\nAbuja, 57 Senators met to elect Senator Saraki as Senate President against
\nthe wishes of the party which agreed to settle for Senator Ahmed Lawan. In
\nthe House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara emerged against the wishes of the party
\nwhich initially settled for Hon Femi Gbajabiamila. Since then there has
\nbeen trouble in the big house of APC as leaders questioned the process
\nthat led to the emergence of not only Saraki and Dogara but Senator
\nEkweremmadu of PDP as the Deputy Senate President.<\/p>\n
Party leaders see this as an act of colossal betrayal and sabotage, and
\nvowed to reverse the anomalies. There has been series of arguments and
\ncounter arguments going on among those who want the sleeping dog to lie
\nand those who want the situation to be reversed. Some felt that it may
\ncause implosions in APC and consequently limit the capacity of the party
\nto deliver what it promised Nigerians. Some argued that a crack in APC may
\nlead to the re-emergence of PDP in 2019. They may be good arguments but I
\nbelieve in the supremacy of the party. I believe that APC is bigger than
\nanybody. I know what APC leaders went through to get to where they are
\ntoday and I believe that APC should stamp its feet down to defend the
\nintegrity of the party no matter whose ox is gored. If anything, the
\ncelebration and exchange of banters on the floor of the senate by PDP
\nleaders after the so-called elections suggest that they are up to
\nsomething sinister in years to come. I am also aware that the rules of the
\nhouse allows one third members to form a quorum but I frown at using one
\nthird quorum to elect the principals officers of the senate at a time like
\nthis. Matters were not helped when Senator Ekweremmadu went to Enugu to
\nbeat his chest that PDP will bounce back in 2019 after stealing the deputy
\nsenate president seat. This is why APC must seize the moment now, put its
\nfeet down, play the real politics and give whatever is left of PDP a run
\nfor its money in Nigeria. We must reverse the dangerous development we saw
\nin the Senate in order to send the signal out there that we mean business.<\/p>\n
Attempts have been made by the invaders and interlopers to suggest that
\nAsiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the one being whittled down by the emergence
\nof Senator Saraki as Senate President. The miserable Bode George believes
\nso and so are others who are worried about BAT\u2019s rising and intimidating
\nprofile. But today Asiwaju BAT remains the most sophisticated and most
\ncelebrated politician in Nigeria. He has almost single-handedly retired
\nBode George, Ebenezer Babatope, Tony Anenih, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Alex
\nEkwueme, Ahmadu Ali, Tanko Yakassai, Edwin Clark, Bamanga Tukur, Richard
\nAkinjide, etc from active politics. Today if the 16 years struggle for
\nChange in Nigeria and the emergence of President Buhari is a book, Asiwaju
\nBAT wrote 65% of it. In spite of hate campaigns, intimidation, use of
\nbrute force, dollars and pounds truck-loaded to Lagos, Asiwaju BAT
\ndefeated PDP and their agents. If this is not a monumental feat tell me
\nwhat it is. In Kwara state, supporters of Saraki think that Alhaji Lai
\nMohammed must sacrifice APC\u2019s unique position in Nigeria and support
\nSenator Saraki because both of them are from Kwara state. No! Lai Mohammed
\ncannot settle for primordial sentiments to the detriment of the National
\nAPC position. He has to defend the party, Saraki or no Saraki: This is the
\nhallmark of leadership. This is the way to go.<\/p>\n
I want to appeal to APC leaders not to join the foolish constituencies to
\nthink that Asiwaju BAT is the problem. No! He is not. What is at stake is
\nthe integrity and position of our great party. We have made promises to
\nNigerians and we need a good team made up of decent men and women to do
\nthe real job. We must have the courage to stop the ruthless and inordinate
\nambition of Senator Saraki and others in order to show the world that we
\nknow where we are going. APC must carry the big stick.<\/p>\n
President Buhari should play the real politics by standing firm with his
\nparty\u2019s guidelines and established rules. President Buhari has the full
\nweight of the federal government behind him to get things done the way he
\nwants it so long as it will benefit Nigerians .The world\u2019s richest man, Mr
\nWarren Buffet says \u201cIn a chronically leaking vessel, it is more productive
\nto change the vessels than to continue patching the leaks from time to
\ntime. Let APC send the signals out there that it is not afraid to take
\nhard decisions so long as it is in the national interest. After history
\nwill forgive us taking decisions and many little mistakes than not taking
\ndecisions at all.<\/p>\n
NB: please take notice that this is a personal opinion.<\/p>\n
Joe Igbokwe<\/p>\n
Lagos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Few days ago Professor Pat Utomi lamented that interlopers and agents of darkness have hijacked our CHANGE PROJECT again. In that piece, Utomi reflected on the June 12 1993 Saga…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n