The former Governor of Lagos State, and a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, declared that his party will send the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) packing from Nigeria’s Southwest region come 2011.
Mr Tinubu, who boasted of his party’s preparedness while speaking to journalists at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, stated that should all parameters guarding the fair conduct of an election be judiciously adopted, the Action Congress of Nigeria will sweep all states in the region. “We are going to drive them away,” he said. “PDP will lose South-West. One man, one vote. True electoral principle, follow constitutional democracy, a reliable electoral register, and a well planned election; if Jega’s integrity that he puts forward is anything that he must protect, then PDP is gone from South-West.”
‘They don’t exist in Lagos’
Mr Tinubu accused the PDP of being a “chop and let chop party,” that cannot boast of a single politician in the state. “Lagos? PDP? Do they exist? I don’t know where they are in Lagos; they are only on paper,” he said. “Since 1998 or 99, PDP has been crying takeover. They’ve cried Tsunami, we sweep them away. They cry that they are going to conquer, we say no we are not at war. They said they are going to destroy and capture, we say we are not in slavery. They are chop and let chop party and I don’t reckon with them. They don’t exist here in Lagos and that is the truth. A party without one councillor, one single councillor they don’t have.”
The former governor also advocated for credible elections, stressing that is a lesson which Nigerians should learn from the recent power shift in Ekiti State. “The lessons from Ekiti are for us to continue to strive for constitutional democracy; one man one vote, use of legal means to seek redress and those who are cheated should not give up until they get the truth,” he said.
Punishment for offenders
Following the nullification of the former Governor Segun Oni’s tenure in Ekiti State, and the subsequent enthronement of Kayode Fayemi, Mr Tinubu called on the federal government to set up an electoral crime commission that will prosecute fraudulent politicians “If you don’t have electoral crime commission, you will not create a deterrent and there are dangers about that,” he said. “When people commit crime against the law, against a nation, violate the law and the right of individuals, the punishment must match the crime; otherwise we all have to go for our guns and cutlasses and the result will be catastrophic for the country and that is dangerous.”
He explained that the presence of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a good example, noting that the commission has instilled fear and caution in the minds of public office holders. “You could see the EFCC, not because they are prosecuting or investigating, but the fear and fact that they exist is a deterrent and make public officers to think twice before they manipulate or abuse the system,” he said. “Not that it will detect all irregularities but the fact that when it detects, the offender will be punished, this will serve as a deterrent to others.”
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