APC Bent on Causing Disaffection, Choas, Alleges Labour Party

 LP National Secretary, Olukayode Ajulo

• CNPP cautions against violence, abuse of democratic tenets

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The national leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has taken a swipe at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for what it described as unguarded and unwarranted castigation of the federal government over efforts at dealing with insurgency in the country.

This came as the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has raised the alarm over the degree of acrimony, violence and promotion of divisive tendencies occasioned by the failure to adhere to democratic tenets in the ongoing pre election activities of some political parties in the run up to the 2015 general election.
The party accused the APC of planning to cause chaos in the 2015 general election going by their unguarded utterances and alleged inciting statements against the country.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the LP National Secretary, Olukayode Ajulo, blasted the APC for celebrating insurgency and terrorism, and fanning the embers of  chaos rather than finding ways of assisting the government to fight it.

"The APC campaigns, rather than being issue-based, are characterised by name-calling, factless fault-finding and dirty diatribes devoid of plans for Nigerians."
Ajulo, a constitutional lawyer who is also the Chairman of Egalitarian Mission for Africa, said going by the statement signed by (APC) National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Sunday, the party has finally revealed its evil intention against Nigeria.

"The APC has inter alia said: "the Jonathan  administration got swindled by an impostor in a ceasefire deal. President Jonathan owes Nigerians an explanation on what has now turned out to be an unprecedented global faux pas. Engaging in cheap damage control by insisting on the genuineness of the deal."

"These unguarded talks and schoolboy lampoon show how myopic and selfish a party that claimed to be progressive is in issues of national security that hold dire consequences for the entire citizenry," he said.

According to Ajulo, LP believes that while vibrant opposition was necessary for democracy to flourish, the nation's unity and peace must not be sacrificed on the alter of do-or-die politics.

"Apparently the APC is not set out to win the 2015 general election as it lacks the vision, capacity and strategy to do so. Rather, their mission is to make the country ungovernable going by the utterances credited to one of its major presidential contenders.

"It is instructive that the same bellicose posture and politically infantile proclamations presaged the violence that visited the outcome of the presidential polls in 2011. And what is more, certain parts of the country have remained virtually ungovernable since then!

"Nigerians are not unaware of the antecedents of the APC major contenders. The nation will not be hoodwinked with factless rhetorics aimed at obfuscating the truth and refocusing attention from the personalities the party intends to present for the presidential polls.

What Nigerians desire most today are presidential hopefuls who have direct and tenable answers to their basic yearnings, not men who promise fire, brimstones and bloodshed if they fail to have their way at the polls.

"What stands out most is the fact that the party is playing politics with an issue like terrorism, an evil despised by the whole world. When America fought terrorism, it was viewed by both the Democrats and the Republicans as a national concern of all and not an issue for pedestrian postulations and dirty politicking," the party further said.

According to the statement, "Pursuit of studies in terrorism and insurgency is not the hallmark of a political party aspiring to position of authority and power in a diverse society like Nigeria. Strategies that unite the people across classes, ethnic groups and religions should be held more paramount by any political party worth its calling.

"Wasteful trips to study brewing uprising in another African country smacks of folly in political theory and beating about the bush in practice. If indeed there is any lesson to be learnt from the situation in Burkina Faso, it is that those who think they can always come to power through the back door and by manipulative means will always have themselves to blame at the end of the day. Power belongs to the people, who not only own but must posses it. The Burkinabe incident is lesson enough for any aspiring usurper.

"It advised the APC to refrain from further inciting Nigerians and pay due attention to the much more palpable issue of their fast dwindling followership saying: "if the APC has nothing to sell to Nigerians, it should gallantly withdraw from the presidential race which in any case it is poised to lose."

"Election is at hand, Nigerian workers obviously have a role to play in it and certainly they will determine who will be elected as power belong to the people" As it is, it is expected that political parties should come out with what they have for the goose that lays the golden egg. They should think of how to better the lot of our people, LP added.

"Nigerian masses and the labour movement would like to know for instance, the position of parties on the minimum wage. They are interested in the next year expected increase on the Statute signed by President Jonathan in 2011. Parties that want to be at liberty to tinker whimsically with the national minimum wage all in the name of true federalism obviously do not mean well for Nigerian workers. Wherever they are in power, they deserve to be voted out and where they aspire to power, they deserve to be voted against.

"Those with propensity to guillotine the masses and labour movement and share no respect for the rule of law and fond  of retroactive application of law cannot suddenly wake up to present themselves as friends of the people, he said.

Meanwhile, the CNPP in a statement issued by its Secretary-General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, urged President Goodluck Jonathan,  as the leader of his party,  the People Democratic Party (PDP), to urgently do something to douse the tension that is fast engulfing the party.

CNPP further said the ward congresses of political parties have been turned into veritable battle fields instead of avenues for Nigerians to express their preferences in line with democratic tenets.

"Widespread attacks and counter attacks among factions cut across political parties as they jostled for the control of party apparatus at wards, local government and state levels. Sadly, this desperation to position for the next election has resulted in loss of lives and destruction of property in many instances.

"Further to this is the growing trend of politicians, political office holders, agencies and even security outfits to brazenly violate the laws and the constitution and vehemently defend same as if they are in the right.

"As an apolitical umbrella body of all registered political parties, CNPP is further alarmed that those behind these activities that are heating up the polity act without thoughts for the future or sustenance of Nigeria’s democracy.

"If this level of rancor can characterise the polity, even before the conduct of primaries, then we are worried over what could be unleashed during the actual elections if nothing is urgently done to curtail the growing culture of violence and impunity.

"We condemn this development in its totality and warn those behind these acts to desist forthwith. We urge President Jonathan, in line with his promise to deliver free and fair elections to Nigerians, to immediately as the leader of his party, the PDP, order a stop to the violence that is engulfing the party and claiming the lives of Nigerians, destroying property and crippling economic activities in some instances.

"We similarly urge the leadership of all other political parties to put their house in order to prevent violence driven politics. We appeal to the Nigerian electorate to take note of any person, group or political party that is promoting violence and sanction same using the power of their votes during the general elections. Nigerians have the power to apply disincentives for political violence and they must rise up to the challenge," he addded.

Source: ThisDay