Nigeria Content Online

The Action Congress
of Nigeria leaders said yesterday that the party is no longer a mere
opposition party, but has “moved on to become a government in waiting.”

The party also
described as mere “wishful thinking”, the statement credited to
Goodluck Jonathan that the opposition has conceded the presidency to
the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2011 general elections.

Mr Jonathan had,
while speaking with journalists at the end of the PDP National
Executive Council meeting held in Abuja on Thursday, said PDP members
will work together because what happens in the party happens in the
whole country.

He said that the
zoning debate was even being spearheaded more by non-PDP members. “In
fact, they have already conceded the presidency to us. Otherwise, they
have no business coming to join our own debate. That means that they
have already known that the PDP will produce the president of this
country but they want us to do it well,” President Jonathan said.

But the Action
Congress, through a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its
spokesman, Lai Mohammed, said Mr Jonathan’s overly-exultant statement
revealed that he might have mistaken the parties that joined the PDP in
the Government of National Unity, for the real opposition. He added
that the ACN considers Mr Jonathan’s statement nothing but subtle
blackmail. “But we take solace in the fact that Nigerians have rejected
the do-nothing PDP, as they (PDP) will realise in 2011. A party that
cannot resolve its problems amicably cannot be expected to provide good
governance at any level.

“The ambivalent resolution that was cobbled together at the PDP NEC
meeting in Abuja on Thursday has further shown the confusion that is
reigning supreme in the PDP. In one breath, they endorsed zoning and,
in another, they said anyone can run. This deliberate ambiguity is the
devil’s alternative for the PDP, and will sound the death knell of the
disappearing behemoth next year,” he said.