A member of the Federal House of Representative, Hon. Rotimi Makinde, representing Ife federal constituency of Osun State, has described the birth of the All Progressive Congress, APC, as a timely intervention for the injection of virile, dynamic leaders that would salvage the Nigerian polity from the dormancy of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the past 14 years.
In a statement made available in Lagos, Makinde lamented the inactivity of the PDP-led governments since the advent of the Fourth Republic, saying that the party has continue to plunge the country and its citizens into oceans of poverty, massive corruption, insecurity and economic woes.
The statement reads: "Nigerians have suffered enough in the hands of the PDP since 1999. Virtually every sector of the economy is dead. It is pathetic that rather than keeping pace with emerging economies of the world, Nigeria's progress is being retarded by visionless and clueless political leaders under the PDP platform.
"It is a shame that billions of naira was sunk into the energy sector without yielding the desired results. Small Scale Enterprises, SMEs, factories, industries, among several others have folded up because of the crippling power sector as the cost of running such enterprises on alternative sources of power comes at a very huge cost to manufacturers."
Harping on the rescue mission of the merging parties, Makinde noted that the synergy of progressives from the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, to form the APC, will no doubt take Nigeria to her Promise Land come 2015.
His words: "Out of a purposeful rescue mission, the APC has come up with a clear vision and blueprint on how to salvage the nation from its present quagmire. Its manifesto dwells essentially on solving critical and challenging problems facing the nation."
Giving a compass of what the new party may do differently to end PDP's grip at the centre, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights said: "All the APC and its leaders need to do is to remain focused, united, prepare to sacrifice and shove aside pride and egos in order to field credible candidate that will be acceptable to the people.
"A paradigm shift is necessary and the time is now. A young, detribalised, dynamic and vibrant politician with integrity is all we need to counter PDP come 2015. It shall be well with our fatherland."
National Mirror
I don't think they've been all that bad when it comes to governance in Nigeria...They've obviously done their very best.