A member of the House of Representatives, Lanre Odubote has described people who say that the newly registered All Progressive Congress (APC) has no agenda beyond unseating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power as ignorant people.
Odubote wondered why people will reason that way when it is evident that the APC stands for good governance, creating employment opportunity for the people and equality as evident in all Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) controlled states.
ACN is the major political party among the parties that came together to form the APC. Others are All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (APC).
The lawmaker who represents Epe Federal Constituency of Lagos State on the platform of the ACN said, “unfortunately, most of those saying that are ignorant of the issues at stake; we are talking about good governance, have you travelled to all the states being controlled by ACN?”
“Do you see what is happening in Lagos State, what is happening in Ogun State, what is happening in Oyo State, what is happening in Edo State, even Ekiti, Osun.
“Look we have agenda, if we don’t have agenda there will be no room for the enlightened people in the Nigerian political environment to vote for us, we are trying to move good governance into national politics, they are very ignorant, we have agenda.
“Our agenda is very simple, good governance, creating employment opportunity for the people, equality. We need a change, a change that will transform Nigeria into the comity of nation that will be given the proper position that it deserves in African politics.
“We were the ones leading Africa in those days, but where are we today? No light, PDP has been in power in the last 14 years, they have appropriated billions of dollars into the power sector with no result, and we are still suffering.
“See the magnitude of oil theft, see the magnitude of money being frittered away through fictitious contracts, all these are things that the APC is coming to address, because PDP
has failed this nation, so if you are saying that they don’t have any agenda other than to dislodge the PDP, I will say it is an uninformed position.
“If you go to ACN controlled states and compare them with PDP controlled states you will see the difference, it is not only to come and dislodge them, but to put Nigeria where it belongs among the comity of nations.”
Describing the registration of APC by INEC as a good development for Nigerian democracy, the lawmaker said “it is going to help us deepen our democratic culture. A situation where you have one party taking over 160 million people for a ride without adequate opposition to challenge them is not a good omen, because this issue of corruption, this issue of bad governance, this issue of insecurity and the so called transformation agenda will lead one to wonder whether indeed we are really in a democratic environment.”
“So, as far as I am concerned the registration of the APC is something that we in the progressive camp have been clamouring for, it is a welcome development, because people must have alternative to the PDP,” he said.
