| PDP ‘ll crash
– Ume-Ezeoke
From GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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Photo:
Sun News Publishing |
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National Chairman and Vice Presidential candidate of the
All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) in the last general election,
Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke has said that but for the wisdom of
his party in accepting the Government of National Unity (GNU)
option with few other parties, Nigeria would have collapsed
by now.
In the same vein, he predicted that with the infighting and
crisis rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic party (PDP),
it would not last till the end of the current tenure of Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua.
Ume-Ezeoke who spoke with Daily Sun in Ihiala,
Anambra State after a meeting of the leaders of the party,
said the peace Nigeria was enjoying was a product of that
wise decision of the ANPP.
He said, “It helped us to have peace in this country,
those who didn’t have the government of national unity,
go and see what they are doing in Kenya, go and see what is
happening to them in Zimbabwe, go and see what is happening
to them in Sudan.
“The wisdom of our members, those of us who supported
the idea prevailed, that it is better for us to have peace
in this country than having what is now happening in Kenya.
We have the foresight to prevent the sort of catastrophy that
is now taking place in those countries.
“There is a group of the party that said they want a
mob action, they want demonstration, destruction of property,
destruction of lives along the streets of Nigeria and there
is a group of us, including me, who said ‘no’,
that there is no need for that. If we have alternative, why
do we have to go and kill our own people, then at the end
of the day you get nothing.
“I told them as an Igbo man, I’ve fought a war,
I’ve fought a civil war, I know what it takes to pass
through that experience all over again. And in any case, when
you begin to destroy property, you destroy the property of
our people more than any other in this country.”
The ANPP boss said that a look at the events of that period
showed that after the election, Nigeria was almost on the
brink and something needed to be done to bring down the tension
and save the nation.
“Something needed to bring down the tension and immediately
that Government of National Unity was announced the tension
dropped immediately. It is because the tension dropped that
you and I are sitting down here, otherwise, you will be fighting
by now.”
On the need for strong opposition, Ume-Ezeoke urged all the
other political parties to collapse into the ANPP to form
a formidable opposition that would stop the PDP.
He warned that if such did not happen, PDP would continue
to masquerade, though he doubted if the PDP would last till
2011.
“The monopoly of PDP, unless we don’t want to
do it in a democratic way, as long as we embrace democracy,
the only way we can stop them is to support and build stronger
opposition party. All the opposition parties should come together
as quickly as possible and form a party that will be able
to oppose PDP stoutly. There is no other way we can do it,
if we remain in our various homes and parties, and say well
let them carry on, they will carry on and business will be
as usual.
“But that is why we have opposition. Those of us in
opposition said ‘no’ and stoutly opposed them.
I know PDP will never last up to the end of this tenure, if
they last up to the end of this tenure, they are very lucky.
From the way things are going and from the infighting and
all the crisis rocking the party, I don’t see how they
can make it.
Ume-Ezeoke said the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties
(CNPP) could not fit into the opposition envisaged as, according
to him, the body was made up of some people from weak parties.
“Who are those in CNPP, which parties are there, it’s
not PDP anyway, it’s not ANPP, it’s not AC, so
which parties are there then? CNPP is just … somebody
just crafted it for a personal thing, but it is not yielding
returns.
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