As criticisms continue to trail the proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan for a six year single tenure for the president and governors, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), has expressed fears that Nigeria’s number one citizen may be a dictator in the making.
Addressing a press conference in Enugu on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu said that CNPP after a careful assessment of the body language, mannerisms and antecedents of President Goodluck Jonathan, has come to the inevitable conclusion that he is an emerging dictator in the mold of African Big men like Paul Biya of Cameroun and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.
Okechukwu who noted that Jonathan has never kept any of his promises to Nigerians, said that a cursory assessment shows that big men in their route to power look humble, honest, and un-ambitious, until they get to the zenith of power.
He told journalists that the big men also exploit the poverty among the citizenry, the dichotomy of religion and ethnicity in their country, while they also cultivate rubber stamp legislature and encourage schisms among the opposition, as currently promoted by President Jonathan.
Citing the manner the President in his 2011 ascendancy agenda, breached the PDP zoning arrangement which he was a signatory to as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Okechukwu further pointed out that the big men have a notorious record of entering into alliances and agreements which they breach at will.
The CNPP spokesman wondered why a President faced with plethora of matters of urgent national concern, including the request of the Nigerian Governors Forum for Fiscal Federalism and infact devolution of powers from the center to the units, should make tenure elongation his first executive bill, warning Nigerians not to trust him, based on his tepid defense that the bill was not about tenure elongation.
In his words: “We are witnesses of how President Jonathan came to power innocently, harmlessly and unexpectedly and how his party and the ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, at variance with the provisions of the Constitution broadened the poverty in the land, widened the gap between the rich and poor and how religion and ethnicity were exploited to enthrone Jonathan.
“We are also witnesses how as Deputy Governor, President Jonathan endorsed the zoning convention of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party; only to violently violate the same agreement barely a decade later.
“We cannot forget as well how President Jonathan as an acting president promised the Save Nigeria Group {SNG} and indeed Nigerians that he will fully implement the Uwais Electoral Committee Report; if he is confirmed as president. A promise fulfilled in the breach.
“It is glad to note that the Uwais Report rejected single tenure elongation and it is theatre of absurd for a president that rejected the core recommendations of the report will choose an item the Uwais Committee rejected” Okechukwu said.
He recalled how the President promised Nigerians to fight the war against corruption, only to authorize his Attorney General to launch a gazette aimed at not only emasculating the anti-graft agencies, totally protecting and shielding ex-presidents, ex-governors and ex-ministers, but in addition, providing comfort zone for looters.
He regretted that ‘in the tradition of African Big men’, we have seen our president, in spite of public outcry, appointing some known corrupt people into sensitive offices as Ministers and Heads of Department and Agencies’, noting that in utter negligence of public outcry against Bello Adoke, Deziani Allison Madueke and Stella Oduah, they were given mouth watering portfolios as ministers in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
He maintained that CNPP in league with most Nigerians, do not trust President Jonathan’s pronouncement on tenure elongation for himself, in the tradition of African Big Men, a living example being President Paul Biya of Cameroun who made similar pronouncement over twenty years ago and reneged, making the yoke now very difficult for Cameroonians’ to yank off.
He called on democratic patriots to enlist in the Stop Jonathan Campaign on – Email -hinokk55@yahoo.com, adding that the campaign will be non-violent aimed at stopping the budding African Big Man.
Author: Chief Editor
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