With Thursday’s convention of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Lagos, the party has successfully metamorphosed into the All Progressive Congress (APC).
At Onikan, Lagos, venue of the event, a total of 4,761 delegates drawn from the 36 states of the federation, the Federal Capital Territory, and ACN members in the National Assembl gathered, notwithstanding the heavy downpour to approve the new name though they retained the broom as the insignia of the new party.
Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun arrived late due to the visit of President GoodLuck Jonathan to Ogun State for the commissioning of the WEMPCO steel rolling mill, while two ACN governors, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State who is out of the country and bereaved Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, were absent.
In his speech, National Leader of the ACN, Bola Tinubu noted that without urgent, the country’s future would remain bleak. “The hour is late and our chance for national progress reduces with each idle moment. The way Nigeria is governed must change and change dramatically.”
Tinubu observed that despite the country’s manpower and material wealth, it ought to be setting the pace for economic development in Africa. But that this hasn’t been the case.
“Today, the opposite is the case. Instead of having a wealth of domestically produced goods in our manufacturing basket, we hold a virtually empty basket. As such, we have become a basket case,” he lamented.
“Our people have had enough of having nothing. The current government’s trademark is to throw empty words and hollow actions at our problems as if doing nothing will cause our troubles to leave from sheer boredom. Instead trouble mounts. If this is the government’s idea of transformation, I will have none of it. It seems their notion of change is to go from slow motion to no motion at all.”
National Leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mohammadu Buhari who was a guest at the convention, declared that ACN and CPC had no problems with the merger.
“It was a continuation of what we seriously started in 2011. Time was against us and all I can say is the rest is history. This time around, we started early to build on the foundation we have laid in 2010.”
Buhari expressed confidence that the merger would make it difficult for the PDP to continue to rig elections, especially with the opposition’s determination to monitor voting units from wards to local governments to the states and up to the FCT.
Erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu expressed optimism that the new party would take over government in 2015 by successfully winning the election. He added that the APC represents peace, unity and the fight against corruption.
The delegates observed a minute silence for two of their members, the late Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Funmilayo Olayinka and Deputy Chairman and former Governor of Anambra State, Chudi Nwike who was killed by kidnappers recently.
National Chairman of CPC, Prince Tony Momoh urged politicians with carrying party interests to shun their differences and cooperate to achieve the task of deposing PDP by 2015. He promised that APC would work with the suffering masses to redeem the country from current travails of poverty, corruption, terrorism, crime and so on.
Host Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola hailed the convention as a historical decision to provide a political alternative, saying “I am proud to be a delegate at this historic convention and for Lagos being the venue of this history.”.
“Proscription of other political parties is not necessarily the only condition for one-party state but the absence of strong alternative choice is a major ingredient. The APC is an alternative choice, which would be put to test in the coming Anambra State election.”
Recounting the party’s odyssey from its days as Alliance for Democracy (AD), National Chairman of ACN, Chief Bisi Akande assured that nothing would stop the new party from achieving its target, and advised members not to entertain any weariness or surrender to sentiments or blackmail in “mindful that merger is strange, new and unique in Nigeria and that the law did not envisage the ambush presently being placed in our ways.”
He expressed happiness that the convention had set in motion one of the required steps for initiating positive change in the country, saying the success of ACN’s merger with others and its eventual metamorphosis to APC is the first bold step towards wrestling power from the ruling party and turning it to an opposition party.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that the merger of leading opposition parties, which has reached an advanced stage, is already a fait accompli. The urgent need for change and the crushing desire to rescue our country from decay compelled us to act quickly to provide an alternative leadership for Nigeria,” Akande said.
“This endeavour has become necessary given the efforts of the ruling party to stifle democracy and destroy its institutions. This is the kind of tradition I would urge us to re-establish in the new family, All Progressive Congress (APC).
“The next few changes of the merger are the final bold steps that will position us politically for greater gains and deliver one of the most formidable political platforms in post independent Nigeria.”
He lamented that in more than 13 years of PDP’s reign, promises made have not been delivered while all institutions of state have been infected with the party’s “moral infirmity, aversion to rule of law and entrenched monumental corruption never seen in the history of this country.”
