APC rejects National Conference

APC hopes to ‘sweep’ off PDP in general elections

The opposition party said there was no need for such conference.

The opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, has toed the line of one of its leaders, Bola Tinubu, by rejecting the proposed National Dialogue being planned by the Federal Government.

The party’s position was made known Tuesday after the meeting of its National Executive Committee.

The spokesperson of the party, Lai Mohammed, who briefed the press after the marathon meeting, said all that was being advocated can be done through constitutional amendment.

Mr. Mohammed said the APC had over five months ago set up a committee to articulate its position on the national question.

“The President himself said that the outcome of the confab would be subjected to the approval of the National Assembly.

“Therefore what is being planned is not a National Conference but an aspect of the constitutional amendment process,” he said.

It’s diversionary

Mr. Mohammed, like Mr. Tinubu, also accused President Jonathan of proposing the national dialogue at the wrong time, accusing him of being diversionary, and adding that the Federal Government lacks the credibility to organise the conference.

“We want to make it abundantly clear that we are not averse to any meaningful and honest dialogue. However, this government has lost focus. They cannot handle the economy. They cannot handle education and the welfare of our children; the country under this administration is on fire and corruption has developed legs,” he said.

He also said the planned dialogue is nothing but an attempt by the government to ‘run away from serious issues of governance confronting the nation’.

There was apprehension Tuesday among some APC members that the party’s NEC may take a different stance from Mr. Tinubu on the proposed national confab.

Mr. Tinubu had shocked many Nigerians after he returned from a prolonged medical trip in the U.S. and U.K. to condemn the proposed national conference. He was a known advocate of a Sovereign National Conference prior to democratic rule in 1999 and in his early period as Lagos governor.