PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013
Obasanjo describes Okorocha a failure From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos
G
overnor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state at the weekend got the shocker of his life when former President Olusegun Obasanjo openly described him as a failure. Obasanjo, who spoke in Abeokuta during the grand finale of a civic reception organised in his honour by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South West zone, responded to the governor’s comments. Okorocha, a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), had in his goodwill message jokingly referred to the ex-president as his “colleague.” Okorocha, who defected from PDP to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), was an unsuccessful presidential aspirant on ANPP platform in 2003. He recalled his days as Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs to Obasanjo and said he gave advice that led to the good things done by the former Head of State. He absolved himself from all the “bad things” allegedly done by the former President, saying he was always out of the country whenever Obasanjo erred. The governor also contended that the greatest undoing of Obasanjo was his decision to take up the national leadership of PDP as its Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman. He argued that the former president transcended all political parties but should always think of taking up the national leadership of the country. “Obasanjo is indeed PDP. But in the actual sense, he’s a national leader. He does not belong to the PDP alone but a national leader of Nigeria. If I have another opportunity to advise him, I will tell him to be the national leader of the country and not the national leader of the party,” he said. “We are here to give honour to whom honour is due. Obasanjo will remain unmovable and unshakable man. He is a man very difficult to describe. He represents different things to different people. “He is not afraid fighting any battle,” the Imo governor said. Responding, Obasanjo said, “Those who have come here to say, even people like Rochas Okorocha. Rochas, I met him not long ago by virtue of the fact that he was brought up in Jos. One of the few cities that I found in the 50s and 70s as genuine melting pot in Nigeria; he probably would not have been able to achieve what he has achieved. He is a true Nigerian. And when he wants to pull me down, he will say we are colleagues. How can I be a colleague of a failure? You are a failure in contesting for the presidency of Nigeria!
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PDP crisis: No plan to remove Tukur, says Wamakko By Lawrence Olaoye
S
okoto state governor, Alhaji Aliyu Kagatakarda Wamakko, has dismissed speculations that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governors have perfected plans to remove the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
According to him, the governors and the PDP national officers have been operating from time to time as true family, such that any controversial issues within the party were amicably resolved in its and Nigeria in general The Sokoto state governor said the recent rumble within the PDP at the national
R-L: Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, congratulates President Jacob Zuma, after Zuma's election as leader of the party, during the ANC elective conference, recently in Mangaung, Free state.
headquarters was not about crisis as the media had widely reported, noting that the party was only undergoing a process of transformation which according to him would strengthen it. Wamakko would be the second state governor within the week to give a perspective on the breakdown of confidence among the National Working Committee of the PDP in relation to the issue of suspension of the Adamawa state executive of the party, and the subsequent intervention by PDP governors. The Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan had earlier given a similar account on the development within the PDP as he said that the state governors never, at any point in time, sat to resolve to oust the PDP National Chairman as reported. Wamakko who spoke with journalists on the latest development stressed that the party was one and as united as ever, being the only party in Nigeria with established democratic tendencies, a reason he said PDP would not break as imagined in some quarters. Wamakko, who thanked President Goodluck Jonathan and leaders of the party on their efforts towards raising the morale of every member ahead of the future elections, appealed to members nationwide to support all efforts by the party and the presidency to continue to spread the dividends of democracy across the country. He said, “We are more united as a party. The opposition thought that the party was heading for the rocks based on the media reports
which did not represent the true situations in PDP. What we are experiencing in PDP is what I will describe as democracy in action in which each member has the right of expression and action meant to promote the interest of the party. “As a governor, I can tell you that at no point did we sit to decide that we would remove our National Chairman. We as governors never planned action capable of derailing democracy or causing any form of distraction to the governance of Nigeria and we are not going to do that as democrats. “Rather, our efforts are geared towards attending to the issues at stake with a view to resolving them amicably with the assistance of President Jonathan. The good thing now is that the party is moving on and it would continue to move on no matter the antics of the opposition” The Sokoto state governor, however urged members of the NWC to continue to work as a family in order to get the steam to direct the affairs of the party more effectively. He canvassed openness and transparency in the activities of the national officials so that the rest party members would continue to repose high confidence in them. Wamakko said the PDP governors would continue work in harmony while promoting the ideals of democracy in the country and all the same serving as a good source of inspiration and support to the party at all levels.
Stop campaign of calumny against Ajimobi, ACN warns Accord From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan
T
he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Oyo State chapter, has warned the Senator Rashidi Ladoja-led Accord Party (AP) to desist from what it called a campaign of calumny against the party-led government in the state over its urban renewal exercise, stating that Ladoja, while governing the state, demolished major buildings in the state, as well as shops and shanties and no one brought the government down for doing so. The ACN made this known in a release issued in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Hon. Dauda Kolawole, in reaction to an advertorial in a newspaper on Friday attacking the government over the matter. According to the ACN, it was high time the Ladoja-
led AP was put in its right place as a party that thrives in deceit, doublestandard and which hoped to make an inroad into the hearts of the people by banking on their short memory. "We could not have forgotten so soon how the Ladoja government demolished the church building on Ring Road, as well as the office of a construction company on the same road and heavens did not fall. The Ladoja government equally demolished shops at Orita AperinAdesola road, Orita Aperin-Elekuro road, Orita Aperin-Adekile road and Academy Under bridge and no one sought to destroy the government at the time. "No one labeled the government Hitler for these acts. Why then would the Accord Party embark on a campaign to destroy the Ajimobi government which is being
applauded all over for sanitizing the mess brought on the state by past governments' inactivity? In any case, Ajimobi is constructing about 7,000 shops at Scout Camp, and there are about seven others scattered round Ibadan. The eleven local governments in the state capital are also building markets. Can Ladoja point at a single market he constructed in four years?" the ACN asked. The ACN said that what was obvious from the governments of Ladoja and that of Ajimobi is that while both liked to see a clean state that is the pride of all, the former was timid, uninspiring and afraid to take critical leadership decisions, preferring to fool the people because of its quest for their votes while the latter is conscious of its place in history and is not afraid to take painful decisions which, at the end of the day, will
benefit the people of Oyo state. "Even the Mimiko government that Ladoja's people regaled us with in the said piece demolished so many markets at Arakale area of the Ondo state capital, preparatory to the relocation of the market men and women. It is now that Akure is beautiful that everyone is applauding his government. The Ondo people also went through similar pains that some market owners are undergoing in Oyo state," said ACN. Hon Kolawole said the party was at one with the author of the piece which provoked the Accord Party's rejoinder where the writer stated that while Ladoja was busy dreaming of a new and great Oyo state throughout his regime, Ajimobi is busy actualizing all the dreams that the former PDP governor dreamt and even more.