Outrage Trails Presidential Directive On Tinubu, APC

Opposition parties yesterday  berated President Goodluck Jonathan over his presidential directive seeking to frustrate their merger into All Progressives Congress (APC).
They  said that no amount of presidential directive would  stop them from providing a credible alternative to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
The organised labour and some civil societies have also warned the President against unilateral hike against petroleum prices.
According to them, the proposed move will be resisted by Nigerians on the grounds that there is the need for the President  to tackle corruption in the petroleum sector and not to  punish ordinary Nigerians for incompetence and lack of political will.
LEADERSHIP had exclusively reported on Tuesday about the existence of a presidential directive (PD 95), seeking to frustrate the merging of opposition parties and the proposed hike in petrol prices between N130 and N140. The directive further sought a covert action against former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu and five state governors from the PDP perceived to the ‘ambitious’.
Two of the merging parties: the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress For Progressives Change (CPC),  some civil societies groups and the Labour have criticised the directive, saying that its main intention is against the tenets of democracy.
The opposition parties and others stated this while reacting to the presidential directive dated March 26, 2013.

No ‘presidential directive’ can stop merger of progressive parties – ACN
But the ACN  has warned that no presidential directive or executive order can stop the coming together of the progressive forces in the country to democratically take power from the  PDP in 2015.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed , the ACN  said, “No force on earth has ever been able to stop an idea which time has come, which is what the All Progressives Congress (APC) represents.  It is therefore futile for anyone to embark on such an impossible task. Nigerians are yearning for change. Therefore targeting our leaders won’t help the disappearing behemoth, whose so-called reconciliation efforts have even worsened its plight.
“Needless to say that every attempt or attack on perceived political opponents by the government and it apparatchiks will be revealed, contested and resisted.  “The leaders of APC know what they are up against and are mindful that the battle ahead may be rough and difficult, yet they are irrevocably committed to establishing a party that will sound the death knell of the fumbling PDP and bring development to Nigeria.”
ACN said it had been aware, all along, that all the attempts to derail the registration of the APC, by some impostors who had been loaded with dirty funds by their ‘Ogas at the top’, were masterminded from the seat of power and the highest echelon of the PDP, and by those who have totally abandoned governance for dirty politics, even though there are almost two years to go before the next elections.
It described as an eye-opener, but not a surprise, the report carried by a national newspaper yesterday that a presidential directive, dated March 26, 2013, has been issued by the presidency, for everything to be done to frustrate the merger of opposition parties.
ACN recalled that, in a statement it issued on January 8, 2013, it had alerted the nation to the desperate measures being planned by the PDP-led federal government to discredit and silence key opposition leaders, especially the ACN leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his CPC counterpart, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as well as their political associates.
‘’The report by the national newspaper confirms what we already knew, including the sinister plan to stop Tinubu ahead of the 2015 elections. We will like to add that part of this plan is to hurt his business interests, scare off most of his business partners and political associates, try to pin some activities of Boko Haram on him and generally go after the leading figures including governors in the APC initiative,’’ the party said.
Mohammed further alleged that the ruling had another plan, which to ensure that elections either do not hold in 2015 or hold under curfew.
“To achieve this,” he said, “those who have now succumbed to a mortal fear of the APC are stoking the fire of violence across the country, either through incompetent handling of existing crisis or by instigating fresh ones. With the North-east and the North-west in the throes of violence, the South-west is their next target in this regard, and we will reveal the full details of their shenanigans in due course,’’ the party said.
The party , however,  warned that do-or-die politics, or violence for whatever reason, will not spare anyone, including the instigators, just as it remarked that constricting the democratic space will eventually stifle democracy.

Jonathan, PDP jittery over APC- CPC
The CPC has  said that the persistent moves by Jonathan and the PDP to frustrate the merging of opposition parties under the All Progressives Congress (APC) is evidence that they are jittery ahead of 2015 elections.
The CPC said is against the backdrop of an unravelled order by President Goodluck Jonathan which contained directive for the opposition’s merger plan under the APC to be thwarted tenaciously.
CPC spokesman, Mr.  Rotimi Fashakin,  further asserted that Nigerians were displeased by the leadership deficit exhibited by successive PDP regimes since 1999.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP on what can be regarded as Jonathan’s executive order to scuttle the merger, Fashakin noted that the merging parties were not ignorant of Jonathan’s machinations, but said such plot were bound to fail.
He said: “We are never under any illusion that PDP will go to sleep while the merger opposition party is birthed. They have already started working on the agenda meant to scuttle the merger. We are aware that PDP sponsored the African People’s Congress. We are aware that PDP, in its dishevelled state, is scared stiff at the prospect of poor showings in elections from this time, starting with Anambra later year.
“APC, as an amalgam of the progressive opposition forces, is a fait accompli. Like a mass movement, more and more Nigerians from diverse groupings are streaming into it. Quite understandably, that is scary for any under-performing ruling party. We are quite aware of the plan to use a section of the electoral umpire to disrupt the merger process. All these plans shall not succeed.”

PENGASSAN boss cautions over proposed kike in fuel price
The president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), Comrade Babatunde Ogun,  has said  that government must engage all stakeholders before an holistic decision can be taken to remove the fuel subsidy.
According to him, “government alone cannot decide for the nation what the country must subsidize for her citizens. The effect of government SURE P has not been felt and the refineries are still working below capacity while we import to our country.”
He added that government must learn from last year January strike and not make the same mistake again.

We are opposed to fuel hike
- NLC
On his part, the vice president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu,  said that NLC opposition to the planned increase remains the same.
It would be recalled that NLC had earlier told federal government not to contemplate a fresh hike in fuel prices.
“In the light of the above,  therefore, we call on the government to forget the unpopular idea or plan to further mark up the prices of petroleum products.”
President of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele said, “The President said he is consulting; so we are going to allow him to consult and it is our hope that at the end, whatever answers he gets is what he follows”.
The Secretary of the Joint Action Front (JAF), Comrade Abiodun Aremu, said if the Federal Government increases the fuel price, the labour unions would mobilise Nigerians to resist and defeat the plan.

Allegation against Jonathan baseless - Okupe
But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has debunked the existence of the directive as exclusively published by LEADERSHIP.
In a statement he issued yesterday in Abuja, Okupe said: “The claim is false, mischievous and runs against common sense in view of the president’s credentials as a democrat who has refused to interfere in the activities of other political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Dr. Okupe asserted that the president does not give unlawful directives and has nothing to fear about the proposed merger that will necessitate him planning anything against the business interests of opposition figures as claimed by the LEADERSHIP newspaper.
The Senior Special Assistant also frowned at the claim that the president was planning to raise pump price of petroleum products when the same president has provided enough funds for fuel subsidy in the 2013 budget and has recently stated unequivocally that it has no plans to increase fuel price or remove fuel subsidy.
Okupe admonished journalists to avoid playing into the hands of mischievous politicians whose desire is to blackmail the president and score cheap political points even at the expense of stability of the country.