Lagos ACN Slams PDP, Presidency Over NGF Crisis

Joe Igbokwe

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has lambasted the Presidency and the PDP for the sowing and sustenance of crisis in the Nigeria Governors Forum. The party says that PDP and the Jonathan presidency by their many noxious actions are creating doubts on the minds of Nigerians on their faith in democracy, which they have leveraged to gain undue advantage over all Nigerians since 1999.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that by the way and manner the PDP and the Jonathan presidency has gone to create crisis in a body that unites Nigerian governors and the audacious manner they are going to sustain this crisis verged on illegality are enough to warn Nigerians that those that benefitted greatly from our fight against militarism are not ready to depart from the paths of illegality and unconstitutionality. It advises Nigerians to brace up for further struggles if they are not to continue witnessing the deliberate distortion of democracy to benefit a small cabal that neither believes in democracy nor are desirous of its growth in the country.

“By now, Nigerians are all aware of the undue interest shown by the PDP and the presidency to annex the NGF for their self serving purposes before the NGF election. Such desperation found meaning in the orchestrated campaign of calumny the presidency and the PDP launched against the Chairman of NGF, Governor Chibuike Amaechi over the unfounded speculation that he was eyeing the Vice presidency. Further show of this inordinate desire to conquer and annex the NGF were the hasty formation of a PDP Governors’ Forum, threats against governors suspected not to harbor positive interest to PDP and the presidency’s agenda, deployment of carrot to woo governors to support the takeover of the NGF among other means.

“Nigerians are aware that after all these heightened moves and heated campaigns to capture the NGF, the body held its election where 35 of the nation’s 36 governors freely participated in an election between Amaechi and the presidency’s candidate, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. Nigerians are aware that Governor Amaechi beat Jang by 19 votes to 36. We are equally aware that since the election held, the presidencies with its governor-lackeys have been in a very desperate mission to forge a phantom NGF with the defeated Jang as the Chairman. We are aware that these forces have been at their wit’s end, deploying very childish, sterile and laughable reasons to explain why they are attempting to abort a fully born baby. We are aware that even with the pedestrian reasons they have been manufacturing to ensure the balkanization of the NGF, they have failed woefully in explaining to Nigerians why they feel they must indulge in a deliberate show of illegality to prosecute whatever narrow political interests it wants to sell.

“It is a shame that despite the extensive effort and the expensive courses the presidency, the PDP and their malleable governors have put to twist, obfuscate and pervert the truth on the NGF issue, they had not been able to rally more than the 16 governors that actually voted for their candidate in the NGF election in the numerous ‘meetings’ they have been calling just to give strength to their false claim. The last meeting was a disaster which should have informed any group, no matter the length of the leash over its neck, that the game is up. For those engaged in the frustrating act of covering the sun with their bare palms, as the PDP, the presidency and some of the lackey-governors have been doing since their defeat at the NGF election, the events of the last few days and the un-refuted accounts of those that should know are enough to tell them that the game is up but with desperation, tinted with a knocked down ethical frame, Nigerians might be expecting much from this group.

“Lagos ACN is so disappointed at the attitude of the Jonathan presidency in the entire issue. Even as it had come out to issue a tongue-in-cheek denial of being involved in this deliberate crisis, we are all aware that the NGF crisis was birthed and nurtured in the presidency. We all know that the Jonathan presidency wrote and forced down the scripts of the present crisis on malleable governors whom it factors will procure the division or ultimate destruction of the NGF for its self serving interests. We all knew that in every stage of the NGF crisis, the presidency is an active participant and it was to remove all shreds of doubts on these when it went round to offer a nebulous recognition to the losing Jang faction. This is a clear demonstration that the PDP and the presidency have no scintilla of democratic tenets in them and can only accept electoral results if they are allowed to write the results as we had been witnessing in this dysfunctional democracy. We warn that the PDP and the presidency are sending dangerous signals to anti-democratic tenets by their shameful efforts to distort the outcome of the NGF election and we see this as enough warning that our democracy is endangered by their attitudes.

“We urge all Nigerians to rise up to challenge those that take liberty with their democratic rights as they stand to plunge us into deeper democratic crisis by their repeated acts of illegality and impunity, as in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum issue at present.”

Joe Igbokwe
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos ACN.