From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Protesters in their hundreds, yesterday, stormed the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over alleged plans to impose former president, Goodluck Jonathan, as presidential candidate.
The protesters came with large posters bearing Jonathan’s picture with marked cross and other smaller ones with various inscriptions like: ‘Jonathan will bring bad luck to APC in 2023’, ‘Say no to Goodluck’, ‘We don’t want imposition of Goodluck’, ‘Don’t kill APC with Jonathan…”
Under the umbrella of APC North-South PatrioticCoalition (ANSPAC), led by Toyin Rahim, the protesters grounded human and vehicular movements at the party secretariat.
It cautioned that “welcoming Jonathan to APC will damage the party. Attracting Jonathan to APC will scandalise the party. Imposing Jonathan as APC’s presidential candidate will ultimately kill the party.”
They further warned that Jonathan’s candidacy comes with negative implications that the “APC does not have anyone of electoral value who can win election for us except we smuggle in a former president defeated seven years ago for his glaring incompetence as president.
“ANSPAC is mostly concerned about the welfare of APC and its members and the continuity of the party as the ruling party of Nigeria beyond 2023. We iike to congratulate you for the umpteenth time for your emergence as the National Chairman of the APC at our last national convention.
“May God bless you with the wisdom and health to pilot the affairs of this party to electoral victory next year. But for that victory to happen, we have a major concern that must be urgently attended to by the Party’s leadership in order to avoid losing power in the next series of election.
“Rumour for some time now has it that former president, Jonathan of the PDP was wooed by some power players within the APC to join the party and fly its presidential ticket for the 2023 election.
“What began as a mere rumour seems to be gathering momentum so close to the presidential primary of our great party. This Jonathan project cannot fly simply because it cannot help our party and we want to do our best to ensure that our Party does not fall victim of ill-advised action that can push the Party out of power.
“One of the most telling negative implications of such an action is that the APC does not have anyone of electoral value who can win election for us except we smuggle in a former president we defeated seven years ago for his glaring incompetence as president. In APC today there are presidential aspirants with credible pedigrees and humongous electoral value and capacity.
“It is not only unnecessary to smuggle Jonathan into our great party, it is also self-indicting and meaning that our party’s performance in office has been worse than an administration that Nigerians thoroughly rejected and voted APC in 2015.”