APC’ll collapse soon –Presidency

The Presidency on Sunday boasted that it was not
perturbed by “the parade of the All Progressives Congress.”
It said it was evident that the party was suffering from a
leadership deficiency and hence its penchant for
embarking on journeys in search of leaders to give it
direction.
The Presidency, through the Special Assistant to the
President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, therefore
predicted that the APC would soon collapse.
Okupe, in an interview with journalists after addressing a
press conference on the achievements of President
Goodluck Jonathan in Lagos, was apparently referring to the
visit of the opposition party leaders to former President
Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday.
The APC leaders had also paid a similar visit to a former
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
But the APC, through one its leading members,Rotimi
Fashakin, said the Jonathan Presidency had since “lost
direction and does not really know how to constructively
engage the myriads of problems that are besetting it.”
Okupe however expressed the view that members of the
APC seemed to have forgotten that God had a hand in their
seach for capable leaders.
He said, “The APC boat is destined for the Red Sea and in
fact, I remember that when we went to Israel, we prayed to
God to remove all the people troubling Nigeria. So, by what
is happening now, I believe that God is working quietly to
gather these people.
“By the time Jonathan defeats those giants, God will take all
the glory and people will know that the APC is heading for
failure.”
Okupe accused the APC leaders of insincerity,saying “when a
Kwakwanso (apparent reference to Kano State Govenor ….
Kwakwanso) was in the Peoples Democratic Party, he was
corrupt but  now,  he is a saint.”
Kwakwanso is one of the five governors that recently
dumped the PDP for the APC.
Okupe also used the opportunity to assure Nigerians that
Jonathan would not sweep the allegations against the
Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, under the carpet.
He, however, explained that it was on record that the
House of Representatives Committee on Aviation which
investigated the purchase of two bulletproof cars at a
whopping N255m   did not convict Oduah of corruption.
Okupe said, “You should know that the House has not
convicted the minister of corruption but they said she did
not follow due process in the purchase of the cars.
“You should however have known that punishment is given
to the guilty but you must ascertain before the guilty is
punished. I believe that the Presidency will do something
about the allegation and I can assure you that the matter
will not be swept under the carpet.”
On Jonathan’s scorecard, the presidential aide claimed that
since the nation’s independence in 1960, no Nigerian leader
had matched the President’s achievements.
He scored Jonathan high in aviation, education, health,
agriculture, sports, economic development, power
generation, among others.
  Okupe  frowned on the   “politicisation” of  the Boko Haram
insurgency by opposition political parties. He argued that
that was the reason why some people believed that the
present administration was not serious about the war
against the insurgents.
He said the Federal government had succeeded in restricting
the sect and weakening  its  influence.
But Fashakin described the Jonathan administration as a
colossal failure.
Fashakin, who was the National Publicity Secretary of the
defunct Congress for Progressive Change, said it was
laughable for anyone least of all, Okupe, to score the
President high in terms of performance.
According to him, Nigerians need to know what led to
Okupe’s ignominious exit from Obasanjo’s Presidency.
He said, “The corruption that we witnessed during the
Shagari era, the incompetence that we thought we saw
during Shagari’s government in 1979-1983, is too
infinitesimally small when compared to the incompetence
that we see with this regime within the last three years.
“We need to understand that this talk that this Presidency
engages in is symptomatic of a leadership that has lost
direction.”
He said instead of the President to address the corruption
linked to one of his ministers, he chose to set up an
administrative panel but has not had the courage to make
public its findings.
Meanwhile, the PDP leadership has said it was not
angered by the meeting between  Obasanjo and the leaders
of the APC.
It said that since the former President told them that he
remained a card-carrying member of the ruling party, the
APC   gained anything from the meeting.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji
Ibrahim Jalo, told one of our correspondents in Abuja on
Sunday, that it would be wrong to crucify the former
President because of the visit.
He said, “The former President told his guests, the leaders
of the APC, that he is still a card-carrying member of the
PDP. This is not what the leaders of the APC bargained for.
“With the statement by the former President, he has not
committed any offence and the statement that came from
him must have angered the APC. So, why do we need to
begin to make issues out of the meeting.”