mince words in accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of
subverting institutions of state to pave the way for his
re-election in February.
The opposition party accused the president of perpetrating impunity,
abusing federal institutions and tolerating corruption.
In a statement in Osogbo, Osun State, by its National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said
under President Jonathan's watch, Nigeria has been
thrown into unprecedented crisis that is manifesting in
the opposition strongholds of Rivers, Edo, Adamawa and
Nasarawa states and elsewhere across the country.
The statement said: "The President has also abused
national institutions, perhaps more than any other
President in Nigeria's history, deploying the police and
the army to intimidate and harass ordinary citizens in
general and opposition supporters in particular, as he did
recently in Ekiti and he is allegedly planning to do in
Osun State; shutting airports at will just to punish the
opposition and muscling the electoral commission, INEC,
to prevent incorruptible RECs from conducting elections.
"As we write, there are contrived crises in Rivers and
Edo, where a handful of lawmakers with the backing of
higher authorities have been terrorising the Houses of
Assembly in their states and defying court orders at will,
with the ultimate prize for the renegades being the
states' chief executives; and there is crisis in Adamawa,
where an impeachment plot has been undoubtedly
instigated and hatched by higher authorities, despite
tepid denials, and soldiers have been deployed to cage
in very high state officials.
"In Ekiti, several billions of naira was allegedly scooped
from a massive political war chest to subvert democracy,
induce voters and upturn all known political theories to
such an extent that all that anyone seeking to be elected
now has to do is to dole out stolen public funds to a
people already rendered comatose and impoverished by
runaway corruption, glaring incompetence and sheer
cluelessness that are the hallmarks of the Jonathan
Administration.
"Under President Jonathan, there is no longer the need
to make any electoral promises or carry out people-
oriented and quality of life projects. Just distribute bags
of rice, expired or not, to a people already famished by a
clueless federal government, and tuck in a few naira
notes into the pockets of the electorate who have been
deliberately impoverished. This is a clear subversion of
democracy.
"With such huge funds now being allegedly channelled
to Osun to thwart the will of the people ahead of the 9
Aug. governorship election, in an attempt to repeat the
Ekiti 'experiment' which the PDP-led federal government
deemed to have been a 'success', it is now clear the
Jonathan Administration will not pull any punches in
subverting democracy ahead of the 2015 general
elections.
"It is also clear now what happened to the 20-billion-
dollar oil money that went missing, as well as the reason
behind the massive oil subsidy fraud, the Malabo multi-
billion dollar fraud, the pension scam, and finally why the
President, whose body language does not abhor
corruption, has redefined stealing as anything but
corruption", APC said.
The party added that as far as President Jonathan is
concerned, nothing else matters to him except his re-
election.
"While he pursues that goal with vigour, the over 200
missing girls in Borno can stay where they are being
kept by their abductors for over three months now; and
the daily carnage in the Northeast as well as Kaduna,
Nasarawa and Benue can continue, even though over
12,000 people have been killed and 8,000 maimed.
Once the President continues to play his
dangerous politics of re-election, which involves using
state resources and national institutions to muscle and
muzzle the opposition; the press and ordinary citizens,
all is well in the eyes of his purposeless party.
"Unfortunately, in the midst of all the shenanigans,
Nigerians are more divided than ever along ethnic and
religious lines, no thanks to a President who is so
obsessed with power that he will not hesitate to cash in
on the nation's fault lines, abuse federal institutions,
compromise once-credible public commentators to
shamelessly mortgage their integrity on the altar of
greed, and disregard even the Electoral Act by kick-
starting electioneering campaign before the starting gun
is fired.
"In view of this, we are now alerting the good people of
Nigeria that President Jonathan's re-election at all costs
is a clear and present danger to Nigeria, her people and
indeed her democracy.
"Unless Nigerians speak out and unless the instigated
harassment of the media by security agencies is halted,
so the Fourth Estate of the Realm can continue to
perform its constitutional duties unhindered, Nigerians
should gear up for more dangerous days ahead, which
will include the stripping of the citizenry of their
constitutionally-guaranteed basic rights, more egregious
abuse of national institutions, perpetration of more acts
of corruption as well as the muscling and muzzling of the
opposition, even as the people will continue to be
impoverished.
"On our part, as the country's main opposition party, we
pledge to be unrelenting in speaking the truth to power,
irrespective of whether or not it makes the federal
government uncomfortable, in the overall interest of our
nation", the APC said.
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