- By Femi Alabi
Former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Abiola Ogundokun has called of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Vice Atiku Abubakar to shun the temptation to elevate personal disagreements at par with National interest.
Ogundokun who is also a lawmaker in the second Republic also charged Chief Edwin Clark, Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, and the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party to rise above partisan politics as they are now elderstatesmen.
The former lawmaker in a statement signed by him stated that all well meaning Nigerians should rally round President Bola Tinubu in these trying times rather than the vain calls for him to resign.
Ogundokun while admitting that things are really hard held that the economic hardship is not peculiar to Nigeria but a global problem.
He said, “It has come to the notice of many patriotic Nigerians including the fervent but misguided efforts aimed at attacking the office and person of the president. While there is indeed a hardship in the country, it should be noted its a global problem not just a Nigerian issue and President Tinubu should be praised and commended for steadying the ship of state in these challenging times rather than the vain calls for him to resign.
“There is an economic slowdown contagion across the globe which
calls for concerted efforts by all to salvage the situation for the benefit of
Nigerians and Nigeria. Gratefully, the renewed hope agenda of Mr
President is taking root, even if slowly. But the evil machinations masked
under rights of expression must be unmasked and called out for what they
truly are.
“While the right of expression including protests is enshrined in
Nigeria’s constitution, the wave of protests without a clear raison d’etre for
such venture betrays the sinister intentions of unpatriotic elements
who are bent on destabilizing the nation for their gains? We must,
therefore, be educated to the fact that if we allow fifth columnists to hide
under the right to protest and they succeed in destabilizing the country, the
the current situation will rather get worse.
“I want to use this medium to appeal to elder statesmen like my friend and brother Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, my colleague and friend Chief Edwin Clark, my brothers Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to put Nigeria first in these critical times and shun the temptation to elevate personal disagreements at par with National interest.
“It is a fact that President Tinubu was elected by the Nigerian people however, he inherited a badly managed economy and some of the challenges Nigeria is facing today have been there for decades. The best that can be done therefore, at this material time, is to support
the president to get Nigeria out of the woods and not support the calls on him to resign.
“The president has the mandate of the Nigerian people and any call on him to resign will be resisted by the people. This is because most of the hues and cries are grossly exaggerated and sponsored by people who go by the theory that if I don’t get it I destroy it whereas most of them are the foundation of some of these challenges. Many of these people
cannot explain the source of their emergency wealth.”