Jonathan is disgracing Nigerians – Oyegun on July 28, 2013 at 2:00 am in Interview BENIN CITY Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the first civilian governor of Edo State, is one man who craved, long ago, for an alternative national political party that can check the seeming arrogance of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the federal level. Today, he is one of the Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, leaders working for the registration of the All Progressive Congress (APC). In this interview, he discloses how the leaders of the opposition have been able to bury their personal interests to ensure that the APC merger becomes a reality. He describes the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP as a failure, just as he notes that the activities of the First Lady of the nation, Dame Patience Jonathan, are making the President more unpopular. He speaks on other national issues including Edo State politics. Excerpts: Some of the leaders of the opposition have been busy trying to register the APC. What impact do you think the party will make if eventually registered? I think that the day after we get the official letter, registering the APC, the political dynamics of this nation will totally change, because it will be a move nearest to a two- party system. Secondly, we will be creating, from day one, a credible national party which will have root in every state, every geo- political zone of the country. We will be offering, from that very day, a choice between the PDP and the credible alternative, the APC. We will be offering the people a choice between two proven entities, the record of the PDP is there and I think it is one great endless list of mismanagement, bad governance and extreme level of corruption, as against an APC which also has a record; fortunately, when you think of the record set by the South-west governors, when you think of the record set by the only APC government in the South-south, which is Edo, when you think of the Nassarawa governor who knows that he has an Assembly that is controlled by his opponent but he has been able to make a landmark achievement in the short time he has been there, you know we have an edge over the PDP. And, of course, you must think of the ANPP contribution in terms of its strength in the North-east. Also coming into the fold very strongly is Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, and you have to count Anambra where we control one senatorial area, and, but for electoral manipulations, we would have won the governorship there. Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the first civilian governor of Edo State So we have a party that is evenly spread all over the country. The one component of the party in the North, the CPC, their candidate in the last elections garnered about ten-eleven million votes; by the time we add to that the massive votes that are to be harvested in the South-west, in the South-south, South-east, I think the voting public will now see that, truly, they have an alternative with performance that can be the ruling party at the center. So it is going to be interesting, it is going to be challenging and i think the course of political events in this country will dramatically alter. I don’t want to go into the endless crises and the threat of implosion within the PDP which, of course, can only rebound to the advantage of the APC. Several governors of the PDP will be lining- up, knocking at the gates of the APC in the not too distant future; so the future is absolutely bright for the APC.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 10:05:39 +0000
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