THE SOUTH WEST CAUCUS OF TURAKI VANGUARD ARTICULATES THE MILESTONE INPUTS OF ATIKU ABUBAKAR TOWARDS THE EMANCIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH WEST ZONE AND URGES SUPPORT FOR HIS CANDIDATURE.

By Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze

Chief Olademji Fabiyi the National Coordinator of Turaki Vanguard who has embarked upon nationwide tour to sensitize and prepare members of Turaki Vanguard towards the PDP primaries and the general election was at Ibadan on 3rd October, 2010 to attend the first ever South West Zonal caucus meeting of Turaki Vanguard where far reaching resolutions were passed and adopted. In attendance were Alh. Debo Badru the South West Zonal Coordinator, Chief Seyi Adedugba the Lagos Coordinator; Hon. Balogun Maroof Coordinator of Oyo, Barr Sola Oyedele Coordinator of Osun, Hon. Adeyemi O. Coordinating the Ondo State Chapter, Chief Remi Osabusuwa coordinating the Ekiti State Chapter and Mr. Taiwo Jimoh of Ogun State with their Secretaries and some other notable Leaders of Turaki Vanguard from the Zone.

Chief Fabiyi the National Coordinator of Turaki Vanguard told the leaders of Turaki Vanguard from the Zone that Atiku Abubakar stands out among those aspiring for the presidency of Nigeria because he is the most outstanding democrat among the lots as he has the most ambitious program to arrest the rot in governance and most importantly he is the closest to us from the South West political zone being our in-law as his first wife is our mother and daughter, Hajiya Titi Abubakar. “As you all know, Turaki Vanguard is a political support group of His Excellency Alh. Atiku Abubakar GCON. He is an outstanding democrat of our time, an entrencher of democracy, and the most investigated Vice President in the world history, yet remained untainted. Atiku remained the best democrat ever in the history of Nigeria whose inputs and contributions have not be fully appreciated by Nigerians and his inputs towards our judiciary development with the number of cases he has won to promote democracy in Nigeria are legendary. We are however using this medium to drum more support for the aspiration of His Excellency Alh Atiku Abubakar come 2011. South West leaders should remember that it was a man from this zone who first carried the PDP flag to Aso Villa, with the total support of Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a party founded on the values of self reliance, progress and development, individual liberty and national unity. Those are the values we shared in PDP victories; we do so with measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that held our progress back”.

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE MEETING
We Turaki Vanguard South West zone on behalf of our over 8 million members hereby affirm that:

1 We condemn in entirety the recent bomb blast that occurred on October 1st while the 50th independent anniversary was going on, let it be noted that Atiku Abubakar and indeed his numerous supporters all over the nation are ardent believers of peace and tranquility upon which democracy can survive. Alh. Atiku Abubakar has been a factor in the peace, stability and progress of this country with several sacrifices he made on many occasion even to the detriment of his own interest to warrant this condemnation of an event that we urge the President and security organs to fish out the culprits and to punish them accordingly. We also note with nostalgia the lapses by the Security Organs in the country for not acting on the information provided by the British Intelligence Unit to prevent this incident that claimed the lives of innocent Nigerians.

2. Secondly, we want to let it be known that the issue of zoning which Mr. President misrepresented is not true, we believe that Mr. President must have said it in error, the PDP constitution is very clear on zoning, and it remains so and we demand an apology from Mr. President on the issue being one of the proponents and beneficiary of zoning of PDP. It is high time our leaders stop manipulating the law and constitution to suit their purposes and interest.

3. The request by Mr. President that Executive aides that were earlier expunged from the PDP constitution from participating in the presidential primaries be again included in the amendment is worrisome. While we welcome any amendment that will strengthen the internal democracy of the PDP, we condemn strongly any attempt or move by the President to reverse the provision, we call on the PDP NWC and National Assembly to disregard such request for the purpose of creating a level playing field for all aspirants, we also view this move as a sign of desperation and fear.

4. We condemn the embarrassment caused the Leaders of South East that includes a onetime Vice President of Nigeria, Chief Alex Ekwueme by using security agents to stop them from holding a meeting aimed at exhibiting their freedom of association and expression as contained in our constitution. This untoward and desperate move by President Jonathan to curtail or oppress those with divergent views and positions against his unprincipled ambition to run for the Presidency against the laws of PDP is totally unacceptable to us as it is inimical to the democratic development of this country and if not arrested such acts and draconian moves by Mr. President may truncate our nascent democracy. We expect Mr. President being the Commander – In- Chief of the Armed Forces to have set up an investigating Committee to tell Nigerians why this type of step should be taken against some leaders of a particular section of this country to prevent the South East from thinking that they are no longer part of this country.

5. For the records, we want to remind our South West leaders, particularly on the PDP that this is the best time to reciprocate the ever good gestures, support, and loyalty of Atiku Abubakar to the zone. Since 1992 when he stepped down at keenly contested SDP primaries in Jos for our son, late Chief MKO Abiola, also in 1998, he supported our son again to become the president of our great country, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2003, upon all the pressures on him to run against his former boss and President, he resisted the temptation and supported his second term bid.

Southwest is known for her sincerity, conscience, loyalty to worthy course when it comes to reciprocating good deeds. We enjoin all of us to rise up and support the candidatures of His Excellency, Alh Atiku Abubakar, come 2011.


Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze
National Director,
Directorate of Media & Public Affairs of Turaki Vanguard

04-10-10