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APC’s New Year Message to Nigerians: Change is imminent

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Chief Oyegun;Chief Tony Ikimi;Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu;Rivers State Governor Rt.Hon Rotimi Amechi;Gen Mohmmmodu Buhari;Chief Bisi Akande;Hon Masari and Senator  George Akume
Chief Oyegun;Chief Tony Ikimi;Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu;Rivers State Governor Rt.Hon Rotimi Amechi;Gen Mohmmmodu Buhari;Chief Bisi Akande;Hon Masari and Senator George Akume

The All  Progressives Congress (APC) has assured Nigerians that the party is  ready, willing and determined to make all the necessary sacrifices to  reverse the prevailing gloomy situation in the country and bring about  the much-needed change for the better in the interest of the  long-suffering citizens.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim National  Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Nigerians  should go into the New Year with an unyielding commitment to be part of  ongoing efforts to set the country on the path of growth and  development, rather than get into a state of funk on the basis of the  cumulative mis-governance of the past 14 years by the PDP-led Federal  Government.

”While wishing all Nigerians a great 2014, we hereby solicit their  unalloyed support for our efforts to reshape the country’s political  landscape, shake off the heavy yoke imposed on them by their selfish,  self-serving and clueless leaders and make the country a source of pride not only to its citizens but to all black people in the world,” it  said.

APC said the first step in what will be a tough but final battle to  rescue Nigeria from the clutches of rapacious leaders will be to bring  the citizenry on board the train of change that is barrelling through  the country, and to ensure that elections in the country are free, fair  and credible.

”As we wrote in the preamble to our manifesto, ‘democracy, to be  stable and meaningful, must be anchored on the principle that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed….This means that  governments are instituted on the basis of free, fair and credible  elections, and are maintained through responsiveness to public opinion.

”’In addition, the exercise of political authority is rooted in the rule of law. APC believes in the doctrine of social contract between  the leaders and the led; which means that the public office holder is a  trustee of the people and that power must be used in the interest of the people rather than in the interest of the public office holder’,” the  party said.

It said in order to ensure that as many Nigerians as possible are  brought aboard the APC train of change, the party will kick-start its  membership registration drive early in the year, targeting in particular the youth who are indispensable in any effort to bring about change.

”We ask all those who are yearning for genuine change to seize the  moment and embrace the engine of change, which the APC represents! Our  compatriots who have lost faith in our dear country because of  inefficient and corrupt leadership can count on us, because we represent committed, transparent and focused leadership,” APC said.

The party pledged to halt the country’s drift towards a failed state with a conscious plan for a post-oil economy in Nigeria, details of  which will be outlined in the weeks and months ahead; and to make the  welfare and security of the citizenry, which is the raison d’etre of any government, its top priority;

APC said that in order to extricate Nigeria  from the dire straits  in which it has been plunged by the successive PDP governments, the  party has decided to make as its priority the War Against Corruption;  Food security; Accelerated Power Supply; Integrated Transport Network;  Free Education; Devolution of Power; Accelerated Economic Growth and  Affordable Health Care.

”We know skeptics will sneer at these and deride them as mere  sloganeering. After all, Nigerians have been taken for a ride for the  past 14 years by those who have mistaken transmogrification for  transformation, and those who have relentless pursued power for the sake of power, rather than to use it to harness the country’s abundant human resources.

”But most things look impossible until they have been achieved, and the impressive record of performance in the states under our control,  from Kano to Imo states and from Lagos to Edo, testifies to our ability, determination and willingness to make things happen for the benefit of  our people,” the party said.

Meanwhile, the party has said the year 2013 is among the worst, if  not the worst, for the citizenry, who have been pauperized and  dehumanized by a government that keeps touting favourable economic  statistics in the face of an unprecedented fall in the standard of  living of its people.

”They say President Jonathan’s achievement in 2013 is  unprecedented, yet Nigerians celebrated the Christmas and New Year  holidays in unprecedented pitch darkness and an unprecedented number of  our youths are unemployed; They say they are winning the war against  corruption, yet key government officials, including the so-called  Coordinating Minister of the Economy, do not even know how much Nigeria  earns from crude oil and gas sales, and what happened to 12 billion  dollars earned from domestic crude lifting; They are so eager to cling  to any straw of ‘achievement’ that they are celebrating the revival of  the locomotive engine in the 21st century!

”Such is their insensitivity and total lack of compassion for human beings that the Jonathan administration will rather spend the nation’s  scarce resources on importing animals for the villa zoo and on  purchasing presidential jets that they do not need.

”Because this government has become numb to reason, because this  government has deteriorated from cluelessness to hopelessness and  because this government has totally lost any sense of direction, we say  it is time for Nigerians to gird their loins and join hands with all  those who are seeking genuine change. To adapt Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless quote, Nigerians must be the change they wish to see in their country,  and the year 2014 must be our Year of Change!” APC said.

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