President Goodluck Jonathan has been advised to start writing his handover note well ahead of the 2015 elections in view of the successful National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held in Abuja at the weekend.
In a statement congratulating the party’s leaders on the outcome of the convention, the Rivers State Chairman of APC, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said: “We are proud of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, General Muhammadu Buhari, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Chief Bisi Akande, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governors Chibuike Amaechi and Aliyu Wammako, as well as other party leaders too numerous to mention, for organising a successful convention to the chagrin of the PDP leadership and other enemies of democracy who had prayed for a failed convention.
“The convention that successfully produced a substantive leadership to steer the affairs of our great party without any rancour or division should be a thing of joy to all Nigerians. With the election of a great visionary, foresighted leader and fighter for true democracy like the former governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as our national chairman, the need for President Goodluck Jonathan to start writing his handover notes cannot be over-emphasised.
“With other great minds who also emerged among our substantive leadership during the convention, APC shall surely take its rightful position as the emancipator of the masses and restorer of hope of Nigerians by bringing up a focused and visionary Presidency that will take the nation out of the mess in which the PDP-led administration has put our nation,” the party added.
Rivers APC expressed confidence that “the new APC leadership would be able to mend the ideological, cultural and ethnic cleavages of the major blocs that gave birth to the party which are the binding forces of our great party.”
The party also said that, “The new leadership should be assured of our common and united drive to send packing the present PDP leadership at all levels of our nation as we need to see an egalitarian Nigeria where the lives of Nigerians and their property will be secured, jobs created for our teeming youths and free Nigeria from corruption.
The party quoted Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s remarks during the convention as its guiding principle, saying that “APC promises change; and it has the pedigree to do so. As it is usually said, no nation can rise above the quality and capacity of its leaders. The aggregation of the individual qualities and capacities of the leaders that make up the APC is what APC boasts of. Our pedigree is in the performance of our states: Lagos; Rivers, Edo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Oyo, Sokoto, Kano, etc.
“But above all, our hope for change is in you: In your desire for a better Nigeria. A Nigeria where the stealing of public fund will be corruption and is punishable; where our unemployed youths will not be reaped off and lured to their graves in the name of job interviews; where lives will worth much more to the government than mere flowers that blossom and fade with time; where national growth will not be measured by the number of private aircraft but by the number of persons that can announce their next meal; where education for all shall be the responsibility of all; where health delivery shall be a priority to government, a right of the people and not a privilege. APC states are doing these . . . APC Nigeria will do even more.”