QUIT PDP AND VIE FOR PRESIDENCY IN 2011 AS INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

A cleric's sermon to Jonathan
Quit PDP and vie for presidency in 2011 as Independent candidate

By NJOKU ONYEKACHI JET
Thursday, March 11, 2010


•Amos

'Let him come out of PDP, and contest, whether as an independent candidate or join another party. I believe he seems like one who can lead this country out of the woods. Because to think of it, there is no sane person in Nigeria today that should stand to vote for PDP in 2011. That person must be sick in the head'

Rector and President of Rhema School of Theology, Rev. Dr. John Amos has advised Acting President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2011 presidential election as an independent candidate or decamp to another party if denied the opportunity by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Amos, a theologian and social critic was one of the concerned Nigerians who foresaw and raised alarm over Yar'Adua's prolonged stay in Saudi Arabia. The clergyman also advised the Lagos State House of Assembly to rather than chase shadows, put its house in order.

In this interview, he maintains that the Yar'Adua's health saga has become a distraction as he canvassed for calm to enable Jonathan settle down to work. He speaks more on other national issues

Excerpts:
So far so good
So far, so good. But I still feel that constitutionally, they have to do all that needs to be done to install Jonathan as the real president, so that they don't set a bad precedence. The provisions of the constitution, sections 145 and 146 are yet to be implemented in order to really give him that legal backing. But then, I look at it as so far, so good. But then, let them do the right thing by constitutionally bringing to a logical conclusion, the process they have started.

FEC's Saudi visit
Festus Keyamo recently described their visit to Saudi Arabia as a waste of public funds and I totally agree with him. To start with, we are the touted giants of Africa. If that be the case, we should uphold our integrity as a sovereign nation. I doubt if there is even any African country whose president would come here, and we shielded such and that country will come here to thank us for so doing. Here, the opposite is what we get.

Now, the Federal government or the PDP government that should have provided among others, health facilities here that ought to have taken care of the president did not do that. Also, the president had earlier told us that he was going to fix health facilities and nobody would have any reasons to travel out again for medicare. But you discover that he could not do that. Any little thing, he runs outside. That is setting bad example for his nationals. And then, we talk about going to say thank you to Saudi king.

Why should the FEC go to say thank you to the king of Saudi Arabia? That is to show that we don't have people that believe in the sovereignty of this country. Our leaders are still tied to the apron strings of these other big nations where the people have been able to develop their countries. So, I think it's a waste of funds, very big waste of funds for us, and an insult to the generality of this nation. So we don't support that at all.

Enough of Yar'Adua
Yes, I really look at it that the government of PDP has been a total failure. These present crop of leaders have tactically jump from one non-issue to the other, denied us the citizens of this nation our dues. The fact however, still remains that you can't deceive all the people all the time. They have not achieved anything, and this Yar'Adua issue, I think has been over-flogged. I think it should be dropped for now, so that our Acting President can get more focused. Well, we look at it that Jonathan has just a few months. If he can prove himself at least in just one or two aspects of the seven points agenda, we will support him.

Let him come out of PDP and contest, whether as an independent candidate or join another party. I believe he seems like one who can lead this country out of the woods. Because to think of it, there is no sane person in Nigeria today that should stand to vote for PDP in 2011. That person must be sick in the head. Out of the seven point agenda, we have not seen anything. The six thousand megawatts they promised us last December, now, the light problem has become too bad. There's no petrol, the refineries are not working, no good roads, no medical facilities. So, PDP should pack up and go.

Then, Jonathan, considering the massive support he received during this impasse, let him be able to prove himself as an individual, we will all support him. And possibly, we are going to throw away this gentleman PDP arrangement of the South takes eight years, the North eight years. The Nigerian constitution doesn't support it. It's just a PDP imposed arrangement. What other political parties have not known is that nobody or party has any right to impose any system on us.

Fashola and the House
Fashola is my man any day. And I believe that any right thinking Lagosian or Nigerian especially, observers of his activities in Lagos should give him kudos. The evidence is there for everybody to see. My opinion is that maybe those rooting for his probe and subsequent impeachment are some forces or cabals, as this word has become part of our national language or terminology. They want him to bring public money to share. And because, he is not willing to share public fund, so, they want to impeach him.

The award given to him recently by the Sun newspapers is a good testimony to his good works in this state. This means that everybody has come to identify with him. That shows that public assessment of his activities is the truth. So, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly are on their own.

They do not have the support of Lagosians. Rather, we are strongly behind Fashola.