{"id":4653,"date":"2013-06-03T03:27:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T03:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/acn-cpc-slam-jonathan-for-backing-jangs-faction\/"},"modified":"2013-06-03T03:27:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T03:27:00","slug":"acn-cpc-slam-jonathan-for-backing-jangs-faction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/acn-cpc-slam-jonathan-for-backing-jangs-faction\/","title":{"rendered":"ACN, CPC slam Jonathan for backing Jang\u2019s faction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Opposition parties yesterday joined the fray as the Nigerian Governors\u2019 Forum (NGF) election crisis deepens.<\/p>\n

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi defected Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang by 19 votes to 16 in the May 24 election.<\/p>\n

But the Jang group alleged that the election breached the convention of the NGF which ensured that all previous chairmen emerged by consensus.<\/p>\n

Jang, accompanied by 15 other governors, opened his faction\u2019s secretariat last Thursday. The group also met with President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Conference for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday criticised Dr. Jonathan for siding with the Jang faction.<\/p>\n

AC N National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement in Osogbo, Osun State, yesterday described as \u201ca travesty of democracy for President Goodluck Jonathan to recognise Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State as the \u2018Chair\u2019 of the Nigerian Governors\u2019 Forum (NGF), even though Jang lost to Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State in what has been widely acknowledged as a free, fair and transparent NGF poll.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party said the President\u2019s \u201cill-advised decision\u201d has shown that he has \u201clittle or no respect for democracy, and will stop at nothing to jettison time-tested ideals on the altar of political opportunism.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said the recognition of the losing candidate for the chairmanship of the NGF has also shown that the President\u2019s spokesmen either do not know the thinking of their principal or have chosen to engage in downright lies in his defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Jonathan is frittering away whatever is left of his credibility by the day. His spokesman said in a statement the day after the NGF election that \u2018the President has always shown a willingness to work harmoniously with any leadership freely and independently chosen by the Governors Forum for the collective progress and development of all sections of the country and will continue to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Jonathan trusts that as true democrats and respected national political leaders, members of the Governors Forum will quickly resolve the issues and differences among them which emerged yesterday (May 24th) and continue to contribute effectively to national development as a strong, and progressive body\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is now clear that the presidency\u2019s statement is not worth the paper on which it is written, that in the Nigerian presidency, words do not carry their exact meanings and that the spokesmen for the President speak for no one but themselves. When viewed in the context of similar deceitful statements by the Presidency in the past, especially on the health of the First Lady, one can see a growing pattern of a lying presidency, a presidency that likes to hide behind one finger. This is sad, because without credibility, a president cannot govern successfully,\u2019\u2019 ACN said.<\/p>\n

The party said the President, who should be looked up to as the father of all, \u201chas become the father of a few renegades, and descended from being the President of Nigeria to the President of the PDP and and now the President of a faction of the PDP\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis President is daily cementing his unenviable reputation as the most divisive President in the history of Nigeria. By raising partisan politics to a pedestal higher than national interest, he has divided the country along religious, ethnic and political lines more than any of his predecessors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the process he has destroyed or is about to destroy national institutions and organisations. First, he succumbed to the pressure from his party to deal with the judiciary for daring to reverse the outcome of some of PDP\u2019s rigged polls. But for a courageous Chief Justice of Nigeria who cannot be teleguided now in the saddle, the judiciary will have been emasculated altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the President all but put an end to the fight against corruption, which is widely acknowledged as a canker worm that is fast destroying the fabric of our society, and now he has destroyed the NGF. This is not an enviable legacy for any President,\u2019\u2019 it said.<\/p>\n

The CPC described Jang\u2019s endorsement by the President as \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n

His earlier denial, CPC said, did not work on Nigerians adding that such a person cannot win the presidential election in 2015.<\/p>\n

It called on the international community to take greater interest in Nigeria\u2019s democracy which, \u201cwith the President\u2019s brand of deleterious politics, is in danger of peril\u201d. \u201cWe call on the Nigerian people to remain resolute in defending the cause of democracy because eternal vigilance is the price for liberty!\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Publicity Secretary, of the party Rotimi Fashakin, who issued the statement, added: \u201cThe deception did not travel for too long. President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s endorsement of Governor Jonah Jang as the \u2018elected\u2019 chairman of the Nigeria Governors\u2019 Forum (NGF) has finally removed the wind off the sail of the rigmarole and denials as regards the source of the contrived crisis in the NGF. This action is shameful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be recalled that on Friday, 24th May, 2013, 35 out the Nation\u2019s 36 governors voted in an election for a new chairman for a two-year tenure. The incumbent Chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, sought a re-election. The President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, did not believe that the Rivers Governor\u2019s re-election would be helpful for his own re-election bid in 2015. He plotted, using the platform of his party, People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP, to truncate Mr. Amaechi\u2019s ambition. At first, a new platform for PDP governors was birthed, with a fierce Jonathan loyalist in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe earlier date set for the election was put off to enable the anti-Amaechi coalition, under the aegis of the PDP governors\u2019 group, to gain some momentum for the task ahead. The high-wire intrigues deployed by the PDP high command belied the determination of the President to use the election as the litmus-test for his readiness to capture the country in 2015. As a way of getting firm assurance of victory, endorsement of his preferred candidate, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, was purportedly assented by 19 PDP governors before the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election, which was recorded, revealed 19-16 majority victory for Governor Amaechi. The anti-Amaechi group made known its rejection of the election on the premise that a pre-election endorsement of their candidate, Governor Jang, had showed victory. For any dispassionate and discerning observer, this puerile predication of the anti-Amaechi group\u2019s dissent is laughable and utterly ludicrous. The question asked is, can a pre-election endorsement be the same as the actual votes cast in an election? The logic of this group\u2019s dissent stretches credulity beyond tolerable elastic limit!<\/p>\n

\u201cThough initially flummoxed by Mr. Amaechi\u2019s victory, the PDP national leadership believed that travelling on the road of perfidy would really fit its demagogic, larger-than-life image as the ruling party, hence the President\u2019s endorsement of Mr. Jang as elected. This anti-democratic stance should not surprise anyone familiar with PDP\u2019s brand of democracy. The split in the NGF was the impetus needed by the leaders of PDP to unveil the plan for ensuring distortion of the Nation\u2019s electoral process hereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a party, we are appalled by the President\u2019s abandonment of the ship of state to cause needless overheating of the polity. The NGF, as it stands, remains a voluntary platform among Nigeria\u2019s governors, with no constitutional function. How the election of the chairman of the NGF captured the animated interest of the President, despite the seeming myriad of issues besetting the Nation State, is still puzzling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis, of course, is another attestation of the President\u2019s besmirched reputation for wrong priorities. Undoubtedly, the President\u2019s conduct in the just concluded governors\u2019 election is a pointer to the immense electoral incongruities being planned for the 2015 elections. Unfortunately, all the President\u2019s men and women have sworn to obsequious subservience which explains why he is egged on to continue with the capricious politics that is only geared towards exacerbating the overheated Nigerian polity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: The Nation Newspaper<\/p>\n

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