By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo
A second republic lawmaker, Pa Abiola Ogundokun, has called on presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi, of the Labour Party to shun the temptation of elevating personal disagreement above national interest at this critical period in the country.
He also charged elder statesmen, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Edwin Clark and Emmanuel Iwuanyawu to rally round the leadership of the country in a bid to steer the country out of the woods.
Ogundokun, in a statement he signed and made available to newsmen in Osogbo on Monday, urged leaders of thought to collectively condemn calls for the President’s resignation, describing them as sinister.
According to him, 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 the 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?
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.
He stressed the need for Nigerians not to allow fifth columnists to destabilize the country under the guise of right to protest, saying we must all rise in unison to protect the country from plunging it further into crisis.
“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 current situation will rather get worse as I have insisted this is the time for elder statesmen and women across Nigeria to rise in unison and offer credible and patriotic solutions and advice on how to move the country forward as well as condemn the nefarious calls for the President 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.
“However, it should be noted that elections have come and gone and it is time to govern. This therefore is not the time to politicise governance as is being promoted by unpatriotic elements masquerading as rights advocates”, it reads partly.
Source: Vanguard