The All Progressives Congress (APC) has assured Nigerians
that the party is ready, willing and determined to make all the necessary
sacrifices to reverse the prevailing gloomy situation in the country and bring
about the much-needed change for the better in the interest of the
long-suffering citizens.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Nigerians
should go into the New Year with an unyielding commitment to be part of ongoing
efforts to set the country on the path of growth and development, rather than
get into a state of funk on the basis of the cumulative mis-governance of the
past 14 years by the PDP-led Federal Government.
''While wishing all Nigerians a great 2014, we hereby
solicit their unalloyed support for our efforts to reshape the country's
political landscape, shake off the heavy yoke imposed on them by their selfish,
self-serving and clueless leaders and make the country a source of pride not
only to its citizens but to all black people in the world,'' it said.
APC said the first step in what will be a tough but final
battle to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of rapacious leaders will be to
bring the citizenry on board the train of change that is barrelling through the
country, and to ensure that elections in the country are free, fair and
credible.
''As we wrote in the preamble to our manifesto, 'democracy,
to be stable and meaningful, must be anchored on the principle that government
derives its powers from the consent of the governed....This means that
governments are instituted on the basis of free, fair and credible elections,
and are maintained through responsiveness to public opinion.
'''In addition, the exercise of political authority is
rooted in the rule of law. APC believes in the doctrine of social contract
between the leaders and the led; which means that the public office holder is a
trustee of the people and that power must be used in the interest of the people
rather than in the interest of the public office holder','' the party said.
It said in order to ensure that as many Nigerians as
possible are brought aboard the APC train of change, the party will kick-start
its membership registration drive early in the year, targeting in particular
the youth who are indispensable in any effort to bring about change.
''We ask all those who are yearning for genuine change to
seize the moment and embrace the engine of change, which the APC represents!
Our compatriots who have lost faith in our dear country because of inefficient
and corrupt leadership can count on us, because we represent committed,
transparent and focused leadership,'' APC said.
The party pledged to halt the country's drift towards a
failed state with a conscious plan for a post-oil economy in Nigeria, details
of which will be outlined in the weeks and months ahead; and to make the
welfare and security of the citizenry, which is the raison d'etre of any
government, its top priority;
APC said that in order to extricate Nigeria from the dire
straits in which it has been plunged by the successive PDP governments, the
party has decided to make as its priority the War Against Corruption; Food
security; Accelerated Power Supply; Integrated Transport Network; Free
Education; Devolution of Power; Accelerated Economic Growth and Affordable
Health Care.
''We know skeptics will sneer at these and deride them as
mere sloganeering. After all, Nigerians have been taken for a ride for the past
14 years by those who have mistaken transmogrification for transformation, and
those who have relentless pursued power for the sake of power, rather than to
use it to harness the country's abundant human resources.
''But most things look impossible until they have been
achieved, and the impressive record of performance in the states under our
control, from Kano to Imo states and from Lagos to Edo, testifies to our
ability, determination and willingness to make things happen for the benefit of
our people,'' the party said.
Meanwhile, the party has said the year 2013 is among the
worst, if not the worst, for the citizenry, who have been pauperized and
dehumanized by a government that keeps touting favourable economic statistics
in the face of an unprecedented fall in the standard of living of its people.
''They say President Jonathan's achievement in 2013 is
unprecedented, yet Nigerians celebrated the Christmas and New Year holidays in
unprecedented pitch darkness and an unprecedented number of our youths are
unemployed; They say they are winning the war against corruption, yet key
government officials, including the so-called Coordinating Minister of the
Economy, do not even know how much Nigeria earns from crude oil and gas sales,
and what happened to 12 billion dollars earned from domestic crude lifting;
They are so eager to cling to any straw of 'achievement' that they are
celebrating the revival of the locomotive engine in the 21st century!
''Such is their insensitivity and total lack of compassion
for human beings that the Jonathan administration will rather spend the
nation's scarce resources on importing animals for the villa zoo and on
purchasing presidential jets that they do not need.
''Because this government has become numb to reason, because
this government has deteriorated from cluelessness to hopelessness and because
this government has totally lost any sense of direction, we say it is time for
Nigerians to gird their loins and join hands with all those who are seeking
genuine change. To adapt Mahatma Gandhi's timeless quote, Nigerians must be the
change they wish to see in their country, and the year 2014 must be our Year of
Change!'' APC said.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
Interim National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, Dec. 31st 2013
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