2011: ACN Tells President Jonathan To Forget Lagos
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 20, (THEWILL) - The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as a pipe dream and an unnecessary dissipation of energy President Goodluck Jonathan's exhortation to his party, the PDP, to win Lagos in the 2011 general elections.
In a statement issued in Benin City on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President should be focusing his energy on preventing Oyo and Ogun states from slipping away from the PDP, even though that in itself is an uphill task, instead of engaging in wishful thinking concerning Lagos.
''The PDP's hope of winning Lagos is best captured in the travails of a leper who, after managing to hold on to the few bean cakes he has just purchased, was asked to take some bonus cakes with him. Of course he replied that the benevolent seller should pray for him to even be able to take home the ones he had just purchased, instead of adding more!
''Mr. President, no one who has ever tasted the honey of good governance, that the ACN government in Lagos state and other states have been dishing out to the people, will opt for the bitter pill of bad governance that has been the lot of the PDP at all levels of governance.
''The good people of Lagos have said 'never again' to bad governance, and therefore will use their votes wisely in 2011 to slam the door shut against a possible PDP government in the state,'' it said.
Commenting on President Jonathan's ''mourning of the PDP's big losses in the South-west'', ACN said it should be clear to the President that in over 10 years of democratic rule, the PDP has not been able to convince the people that it deserves their votes.
''Despite the PDP's resort to self help to 'capture' many states - especially in the South-west - during the last general elections, it should not have been a surprise to President Jonathan that those 'captured' states have now slipped away from the stranglehold of the PDP, thanks to thejudiciary!'' the party said.
ACN said the hurricane 'progressive' that is sweeping across the South-west is not about to stop until it has swept off all the vestiges of purposeless governance from the region, and that not even apresident's wishful thinking could stand in its way.
The party reminded President Jonathan that even his benefactor and the apostle of do-or-die politics did all in his power to 'capture' Lagos state in 2007, but was defeated by the power of the people.
''Since power belongs to the people, and the same people have vowed to protect their votes at all cost, the PDP and its leaders should not become starry-eyed about the prospect of winning Lagos in 2011,'' it said.