2011 Hits High Gear, Parties hold Conventions

Activities have heightened in the political parties as they prepare feverishly for their conventions ahead of the 2011 general elections.


The country's two main political groupings, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress (AC), are set to hold their conventions at which plans and candidates for the polls are expected to be high on the agenda.


In fact, a crucial meeting of the PDP's National Executive Committee (NEC) has been fixed for next Thursday to address some critical issues, including the convention and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's health.


Also, the AC is to hold its convention at Onikan Stadium in Lagos at 10.00 a.m. next Saturday, December 12, 2009.


Those eligible to attend, according to an AC statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji

Lai Mohammed, are the National Chairman and other officials of the party as well as governors and other government functionaries at different levels.


The Guardian learnt that the PDP's National Working Committee (NWC) led by the party's chairman, Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, took the initiative by requesting for a NEC meeting in the face of the opposition's stance on the President's health. He reassured the nation that there is no need to panic as the President was responding to treatment and would soon return to the country.


It was also gathered that at the NEC meeting, the party faithful are likely going to pass a vote of confidence on Yar'Adua to send a signal to the opposition that their wish would be fruitless.

The NEC meeting, according to sources, will discuss the modalities for the mid-term convention of the party where the NWC is supposed to render account of stewardship since assuming power in 2008.

As part of preparation for the activities, Ogbulafor led some members of the NWC to Aso Rock Villa yesterday morning to discuss with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. The meeting, The Guardian gathered, endorsed the work plan of the NWC and went into a long discussion on the ruling of the Appeal Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, nullifying the candidature of the candidate of PDP for the February 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo.

Consequently, the National Legal Adviser of the party, Olusola Oke, was asked to go to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling.

Oke said the party had filed an appeal at the apex court and that the PDP's position remains that Soludo is its candidate unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise.

The PDP's National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, confirmed that the party was taking some steps to strengthen its structure.


Oke also disclosed yesterday that the party would take legal steps to correct what it considered an illegality in the bye-election that took place in Ondo State at the weekend.


During the election, Senator Gbenga Ogunniya and some other federal lawmakers were allegedly arrested by the police. But Oke said the senator was mandated by the party to lead its delegation but they were allegedly attacked by the agents of Labour Party (LP). He dismissed allegation by the LP that PDP attempted to rig as false. He remarked: "I stand before you with every authority and honour I can muster to declare that it is absolutely untrue and totally unacceptable that the gentlemen could descend to that level as they did not in any manner whatsoever, hijack any ballot box in any part of that constituency."


The party called on the Inspector General of Police to set up a panel to probe the incident and asked the security agents at the election to produce their reports.


"We will take legal action to redeem the image of the Senator," he vowed.


A bye-election to fill the vacant seat of Akoko South-East and Akoko South-West Federal Constituency in Ondo State was held at the weekend and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the LP winner.


And after a rash of speculations linking him with a plot to use Yar'Adua's present indisposition to achieve an alleged presidential ambition, Senate President, David Mark, yesterday alluded to a campaign of blackmail to set him on a collision cause with the recuperating Nigerian leader.


He expressed dismay that the President's ill-health was being exploited by some people, whose names he refused to mention, to introduce disaffection among government functionaries.


His words yesterday at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abuja Branch Law Week: "I feel very strongly about what is happening. Sycophants and praise singers have cashed (in) on the situation; we must condemn these acts. It is inhuman and unjust. They deliberately sell dummies to newspapers. The following morning, they collect the newspapers and fly to Saudi Arabia to tell lies. It is totally mischievous and in bad faith. I do not have such ambition. If others nurse so, certainly not David Mark.


Meanwhile, more groups have continued to react to calls for the resignation of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as a result of his ill-health.


A group, "The Association of Former Councillors and Ward Leaders in Nigeria (AFCOWN), yesterday condemned calls by some Nigerians for Yar'Adua's resignation from office on health grounds, unpatriotic and undemocratic.

The association also urged Nigerians to embark on a three-day fasting and prayers for the president to recover on time.

At a press conference addressed by its national co-ordinator, Elder Mike Omohimua, in Abuja yesterday, the group pointed out that nobody was immuned to one form of ailment or the other.

He said: "Those alleged to have signed or endorsed the resignation of the president on account of health probably do not understand the implications of their positions. They call themselves patriotic Nigerians speaking for the country but I ask them: Where were they when fuel prices were increased? Why did they not protest? I am aware they want to organize protests for a president who is ill to resign and they call themselves patriotic Nigerians."

"Lagos yesterday, the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos and Bishop of Lagos Diocese, Most Revd. Adebola Ademowo, said: "We are praying for the President for quick recovery. It is our responsibility to pray for him so that he can recover fully and be at his desk."

He said that for Nigeria to be an enviable country, Christians and Christian leaders must live like the first century Christians. According to him, this is the only way for non-Christian neighbours to respect the Christian faith when they see Christ-like-behaviour being put into practise.

He said: "A lot of people that preach now, preach churchianity, they preach denominationalism whereas they are supposed to preach the gospel. The gospel is the message that does not change, but changes lives and it is very important for the church leaders to partner with the government to make meaningful impact in the society."

He noted that church leaders had been playing a very noble role in the area of prayer and had condemned actions of the governments where necessary and commended it when they do well.

As the controversy over Yar'Adua's health rages, Nigerian students yesterday called on the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to set up a committee in line with Section 144 of the Constitution to determine whether the President has the capacity to continue leading the country or not.

Under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), they said it would be premature to call for the resignation of the President without following due process which informed the call to set up a committee.

Although the students at a press conference by the Chairman, Joint Campus Committee (JCC) of NANS, Adeyemo Tunde, expressed sympathy with the President over his failing health, they maintained that Yar'Adua's absence has created a vacuum which must be filled without delay.

The students urged FEC to put sentiment aside and work for national interest.

The students also frowned at the state of the nation's healthcare system, saying the inability of the President to seek medical attention in Nigeria despite the large number of teaching hospitals in the country had exposed Nigerian leaders as hypocrites who had been paying lip-service to the country's affairs.

Adeyemo also opposed the planned deregulation of the oil sector saying the move was an attempt to further impoverish Nigerians and restated their resolve to resist it.

Yar'Adua's Special Adviser on National Assembly matters, Senator Mohammed Abba Aji, yesterday met with Vice President Jonathan, but was silent when he emerged from the parley.

However, he vehemently denied that there was a time he refused to submit a letter of leave from the President to Mark and the House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole.

Asked what he discussed with Jonathan, he said: "I will not be sharing with you what I discussed with the Vice President; that is not a fair question."

On the leave letter which, according to a newspaper (not The Guardian) he allegedly advised the President against sending to the National Assembly, Aji retorted: "The paper had said there is a letter written that I refused to submit, that is not true. There is no such letter, at all. So the story is baseless and it's false."

In another statement yesterday regarding the newspaper publication, Aji wrote: "More worrisome to me was the fact that the writer of that report failed to contact me to confirm the authenticity of such report before going to press.

"It is surprising that a national newspaper could go to town with a report of that gravity without bothering to seek confirmation from me..."

Last February when Yar'Adua went on leave without writing to the National Assembly, Aji had said in an interview that the President did not need to inform the lawmakers before proceeding on a yearly vacation.

His words: "The President is not required by the Constitution to write the Senate. There is no constitutional requirement for him to do so."

Quoting copiously from the Section 145 of the Constitution, he said: "This section does not say he has to write such a letter. The President is elected for a four-year term that includes every second of every minute of that period.

"Whether he is asleep, on vacation, on leave or on a trip to the moon, the Vice President is also the same under all these conditions.

"Today, the Vice President has presided over the exco-meeting. They (the President and the Vice President) have a fantastic relationship. I have never seen a President and a Vice President working so harmoniously.

"These are elected not appointed political office holders. So, the issue of the President handing over does not arise.

"In the course of Obasanjo's eight years in office, he never wrote any such letter. There is therefore no need for such a letter.

"I was in the Senate for four of those years. He (Olusegun Obasanjo) never handed over to any body. The Vice President is assisting the President."