TheCable

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. John Oyegun, on Wednesday accused President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of destroying institutions in Nigeria in a bid to suppress the opposition and hold on to power.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Oyegun, who said his party will preserve the country’s democracy through resisting tyranny and oppressive laws, lamented the intimidation of governors in the opposition party.

“Nigerians must be worried about power with impunity, which is what President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the PDP, have resorted to in their desperation to crush the opposition and destroy Nigeria in the process,” he said.

“Events in Nigeria in the past few weeks point to a return to the dark old days of state dictatorship, lawlessness, impunity and repression. President Goodluck Jonathan is so obsessed with reelection in 2015 at all cost that he is destroying not just all our key institutions but indeed the entire country.

“He does not mind if Nigeria is destroyed in the process. He does not care whether every institution of state, be it the military, the courts, INEC or any other one, is destroyed. All that matters now is his reelection.

“As we speak, the governor of Adamawa, Murtala Nyako, has been impeached at the instance of the president and his party; they have moved to Nasarawa, their next stop, while Rivers, Edo and Borno, all APC states, are not being spared the destabilisation that precedes their newfound weapon.

“Our freedoms are being emasculated; our economy being run to the ground, and our only hope of bringing about change — our democratic expression — is being smothered before our very eyes…

“Indeed, keeping quiet in the face of the ceaseless and unrelenting reckless violations of all known laws of the land and the Constitution will amount to complicity in the lawlessness and impunity that has become the norm under President Goodluck Jonathan.”

Criticising the PDP for promoting anti-democratic principles, Oyegun accused the president of influencing lawmakers in different states to oust governors of APC.

“In Adamawa, each member of the state house of assembly was allegedly given $300,000 as part payment to impeach Governor Nyako; some N500 million has allegedly been moved to Nasarawa to induce the state’s lawmakers to impeach Governor Al-Makura, and in Edo, each lawmaker has allegedly been offered N75 million to impeach Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

“Now, who is guiltier of gross misconduct than a president who is frittering away our commonwealth to induce perfidious legislators to impeach their state Governors? Who is guiltier of gross misconduct than a president who deploys troops to harass, intimidate and arrest the opposition during an election? Who deserves to be impeached for gross misconduct more than a president who uses national institutions against the opposition, and shuts airports arbitrarily?

“President Jonathan’s desperation knows no bounds, and he is willing to set a record of presiding over the greatest number of impeachments under his tenure. Before Nyako’s impeachment on Tuesday, a total of five impeachments have been carried out in all of the 15 years of the Fourth Republic. But between now and 2015, President Jonathan is championing five impeachments, in Adamawa, Nasarawa, Edo, Rivers and Borno.”

Oyegun highlighted the excesses of the president, saying: “In Ekiti, soldiers were deployed to hunt down the opposition and prevent them from moving around freely, in contravention of the nation’s constitution. In Osun, soldiers are again to be deployed to shut down the state and go after the opposition.

“By using the military for election duties, President Jonathan is clearly disobeying a court order, as the Court of Appeal had ruled as far back as 2005 that the involvement of the military in the conduct of elections is an aberration and therefore unconstitutional. Indeed, in the words of Salami, JCA on page 176 in the case of Yusuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 NWLR (Pt. 956 96@174-5).

“It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise the democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarised. This is not what the citizenry bargained for after 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianise the polity and thereby ensure survival and sustenance of democracy.

“The Akure airport was suddenly slammed shut just to punish opposition leaders who had converged in Ekiti for Gov. Kayode Fayemi’s campaign rally. They had to travel all night by road to Lagos. In Borno, under the guise of ensuring security, the Maiduguri Airport has been closed for several weeks, hence the Borno Governor and the people of the state, including the pilgrims heading to lesser Hajj, have been forced to travel by road to Kano to board their flights.”

He argued that the reason for shutting the airport has suddenly vanished, as the private plane bearing former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff was allowed to land at the airport on Monday, the same day the state governor had to travel by road to Kano to see his brother who was involved in an accident on the same road!

“Obviously, President Jonathan is fast turning Nigeria into George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where some animals are more equal than the others,” he said.