The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the call by the
National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, for the postponement of
next month’s general elections ostensibly to give INEC more time to
distribute all Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), warning that under no
circumstance must the elections be scuttled.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the call by Col.
Dasuki, during an event at the Chatham House in London on Thursday,
has exposed the hitherto clandestine plot by the Jonathan
Administration to push for the postponement of the polls, using all
sorts of cheap tricks.
”Now that we have found the smoking gun, we are urging the
international community, in particular, to urgently extract a
commitment from President Goodluck Jonathan that the elections will
hold as scheduled next month, and that he would respect the outcome,
just as we have said,” it said.
APC said Col. Dasuki was only seeking to buy time for the slugging
Jonathan electioneering campaign to gather steam by hinging his
postponement call on the delay in PVC distribution, adding: “They know
for sure that if they don’t postpone the elections, there is no way
they can win. They are just terrified.”
The party also called on Nigerians to reject in its entirety the
ongoing orchestrated plot by the Jonathan Administration to postpone
the elections, saying the constitutional crisis that will be triggered
by such postponement is capable of undermining the nation’s democracy.
”After realizing it will be rejected by Nigerians who have borne the
brunt of its mis-governance over the years, after realizing that its
campaign of calumny against our presidential candidate has failed, the
Jonathan Administration has now started to play its last card, which
is the postponement of the election,” it said.
APC said the importance of elections cannot be over-emphasized,
adding: ”Election is the lifeblood of democracy, the mechanism by
which modern representative democracy operates. It is the only way for
the citizenry to renew and refresh the governing process so they can
get the most benefits out of democracy. Therefore, anyone that tries
to sabotage this mechanism is aiming a dagger straight to the heart of
democracy.”
The party accused the Jonathan Administration of using all the tricks
in the books to scuttle the forthcoming polls, including the plot to
hide under the insurgency in the North-east, the needless controversy
over the secondary school leaving certificate of our presidential
candidate, the concocted report by the DSS alleging a plan to hack
into INEC’s database and the fabricated report of Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari’s ill-health
”They tried to hide under terrorist attacks in the North-east and the
fact that Nigeria is at war to shift the elections, this did not fly.
They used the DSS to invade our Data Centre and then concoct the
allegation that we are planning to hack into INEC’s Data Base, it did
not fly as INEC said its Data Base cannot be hacked. They launched an
aggressive campaign to convince Nigerians that our presidential
candidate is not qualified to run because he has no secondary school
leaving certificate, but that also did not fly, as the certified
results of his Cambridge examination have now been published for all
to see.
”They went and procured a fake report showing our candidate is
suffering from prostate cancer, hence he is not fit for the high
office of President, but their antics were discovered when the health
institution that purportedly issued the report disowned it.
”Now they have launched their last set of jokers, which include
hiring willing hands to make the television rounds saying there is no
way the elections could hold next month, ostensibly because INEC is
not ready, even when the electoral umpire has said it is ready to
conduct the polls.
”There are also alleged plans to stage-manage some high profile cases
of violence and arson, for which the opposition will be blamed and
then its leaders arrested in droves, all in an effort to scuttle the
polls. For those who find these hard to believe, we ask them to look
at the sheer madness of a state governor placing a newspaper advert
wishing our presidential candidate dead! The possible repercussions of
this kind of provocative act are better imagined, had our party not
been a peaceful party.
”In view of the above, we have decided to take our case to Nigerians
and indeed the global community, so they can prevail on President
Jonathan to allow the elections to hold as scheduled and to make a
commitment to respect the outcome,” it said.
APC said never before has there been so much desperation on the part
of any government to remain in office at all costs, even when it is
clear for all to see that that government has run out of luck.
The party however called the attention of the President and his party
hawks to a quote by the preeminent Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi,
hoping they will learn a lesson or two from it:: “Remember that all
through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a
time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”
