Nigeria Content Online

The
Action Congress (AC), one of the foremost political parties in the
country, on Friday said that it will make public its decision on the
issue of the mega party proposal by Monday.

Bola Tinubu,
former governor of Lagos State and a chieftain of the party, while
speaking to correspondents at the presidential wing of the Murtala
Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos disclosed that the party, which is one of
the formidable oppositions to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), is doing all it can to claim victory, come the 2011 general
elections.

Admitting that he
is not the national chairman of the party, Mr. Tinubu disclosed that
his party is interested in ensuring the survivability of Nigeria,
adding that the PDP has not delivered in its promises to Nigerians.

“Just keep
looking, by Monday you will know what the party decides. I mean I am
not the national chairman or a member of the national working
committee, for we are looking at a country that is stable and
progressing and we want to work hard as the opposition party to wrest
power from this Poverty Development Party that has not done any
Nigerian any good,” he said. “At the last, they have drifted completely
from government and now it is all about zoning, running, they have
personalised Nigeria.” Outlining poverty, unemployment, poor
educational standards, amongst others, to be the characteristics
attributable to the Peoples Democratic Party, the former governor said
that a nation that is attaining 50 years of age is expected to be
making considerable improvement.

“Poverty is on the
line, unemployment is rife in our youth, education of our youth is
poor, as well as the opportunities in this country; last minutes of
fifty years in our independence and we are still talking about our
potential and not reality – the progress that a nation is made,” he
said.

National Assembly as an ‘imperial court’

Mr. Tinubu also
called on the National Assembly to allow the Independent and National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to act as an autonomous body and not to
interfere in the conducts of the elections.

“It is not about
the merger of which party or not. You look at the National Assembly
making laws in a customised and personalized form and not by the
constitution. Taking away the independence of INEC, when you say this
is an independent institution.

You are taking
their independence away by ordering the election, organising the order
of elections, making laws, legislating for the order of election and so
on and so forth. All sort of charade by the majority party in power.
You could see a National Assembly that is now an imperial court,” he
said.

Explaining that
the call for President Goodluck Jonathan to contest next year’s
election has nothing to do with the Action Congress, and that the party
is working towards changing the way things are being done by the PDP,
Mr. Tinubu disclosed that Nigeria is far from being a country with only
one party.

“We will not allow
this country to become a one party state. I don’t want to talk about
Jonathan running, or sitting down or broken ankle. No, that is their
problem; that is the problem of PDP,” he said.