ACN CONVENTION ADDRESS BY NATIONAL LEADER, ASIWAJU BOLA TINUBU. ONIKAN
STADIUM, LAGOS, NIGERIA.APRIL 18, 2013
1. History is upon us, asking
something bold of us. Those who hear must respond to its call because history
is impatient. If we tarry, history shall not. If we fail to act as the
situation requires, history will still move forward and its pen will write an
unanswerable verdict against us. All the prior achievements and feats we have
recorded in the past will matter little unless we now answer the challenge now
facing us.
We have come to the place where
things must change or we shall sink. For the nation to continue as is
constitutes nothing less than an invitation to doom. Such a fate we shall not
abide.
2. 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. This means the shape of politics
must change. Nigeria must be a prosperous, secure, safe nation that helps
weaker nations attain peace and stability. Instead we are beset by woe on all
sides. Boko Haram falls upon our people in the North. MEND in the Niger delta
falls upon us. Kidnapping and robbery encircle the nation as if we have become
a training ground for criminal misconduct.
3. Rich in manpower and material
resources, Nigeria should set the agenda for economic development and broadly
shared prosperity on the African continent. 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.
More Nigerians than ever before
suffer under the daily grind of poverty. Unemployment is so rampant among our
youth that finding a job is no longer the natural progression of life. It is
seen as a miracle.
4. Even then, upon finding work,
too many people soon discover they labor for wages below the subsistence level.
For them there is too many days left until the end of the month after the money
is finished. With too little food and more tears in their eyes than drinkable
water in their cups, they stare into the darkness of despair on a constant basis.
This is not the way of a great
nation. It is the way of heartless and mean governance that puts the interests
of small elite above the interests of the common working man and woman who are
the soul and backbone of this nation.
5. We should have a vast land
transportation system that moves our active, energetic population safely and
moves our goods and produce cheaply. Instead, our roads have become portals of
death where people perish by the dozens -- one accident after another.
Yet, those in command do nothing
for the average Nigerian who is forced to run this gauntlet of death for his
daily crumbs of bread. Instead, those who could improve this situation for the
good of all do just enough to make things better for themselves.
6. Where the road is bad, they
budget for it, still the road gets worse off. Where the road is impassable,
they offer excuses and empty promises. The touted improvement in electricity
supply is now a mirage. In the midst of petrol dollars and abundance of natural
gas Nigerians are without a commensurate standard of living. Our billions are
embezzled and shared to cronies. The slogan of the ruling party is power, but
corruption is the fuel that powers their government. In a prior age, an
arrogant ruler reportedly once scoffed regarding her starving population, “let
them eat cake.” Today, our rulers scoff at our people “let them face death.” The
current way of governance makes nation building impossible. What it does is make poverty and the erosion of
a just society inevitable.
7. We have gathered at this hour
and in this place to put an end to this national corrosion. We have assembled
to bring a new day and a new Nigeria to our people. The Nigerian people are
decent and hard-working people. They also are long –suffering. Just because they are long –suffering does
not mean they should be forced to suffer until death comes.Our people have had
enough of having nothing. The current government’s trademark is to throw empty
words and hollow action at our problems as if doing nothing will cause our
troubles to leave from sheer boredom.
Instead, trouble mounts.
8. 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. If they want to stand still,
that is their right. However, they have no right to force the whole nation to stagnate
with them. We have things to accomplish and progress to make for the good of
the people.
If they have nothing to offer
except the nothing they have been giving us, let’s join hands with others to
sweep them aside. so that we can keep pushing through and move this nation
upward and forward.
9. This is why we hold our
convention today. This convention portends the coming of great political
change. A storm is brewing. Don’t be frightened. It is a positive storm with a
positive wind. Those things that have no roots and offer no solution to the
plight of the people shall be swept away. This storm will change the political
terrain forever. I am not afraid of this
storm. I welcome it because the storm is us- our new vision. Our new party.
10. I stand to tell you that for
the good of Nigeria this must be the last and final convention of the Action
Congress of Nigeria, ACN. As one of the
national leaders of this party, I have dedicated myself to our political
collaboration. I am attached to it in the strongest way. I am proud of what we
have accomplished. Had we not held fast in the southwest against onslaught and
intrigue, Nigeria would effectively be a one party state. When history rights
its tale of the past decade, it will say the ACN preserved Nigerian democracy
when it came under great threat.
11. But we must enter a new phase
if poverty and want are to be lifted from the backs of our people. Given the
destructive nature of PDP governance, we can no longer be satisfied with
preserving democratic practice and with serving as the opposition. The first
step in changing Nigeria for the better is to change government for the better.
12. Weighing all things in the
balance, if I must decide between the existence of this party and the
improvement of Nigeria, I must choose the improvement of Nigeria. That is our
duty and responsibility. While it would be most comfortable to remain with our
party as is, with its unique symbol, manifesto and constitution, we are not
here to do what is comfortable. We are here to do what is right for our people
and our country.We are here to answer to a greater, higher calling. That calling is the love of Nigeria.
13. To rescue Nigeria from the
blight of misgoverance, we must join hands with like-minded progressives in
other parties and organizations. We must sacrifice our current partisan
identity to create a larger one capable of assuming leadership at the national
level. This and only this offers the best chance for Nigeria at this stage. We
dare not miss this chance because we cannot be sure of another.
14. I ask you my brothers and
sisters to take pride in what ACN has accomplished but to have the vision and
courage to see that our national imperatives require us to enter a new phase of
political maturity, sacrifice and cooperation in order to bring an era of progressive
governance to the whole of Nigeria and not just part of it. If we must end the
ACN identity to form a new party so that Nigeria can survive and our people can
live better life and face a rewarding future., then so be it. We shall do this
with serious yet happy purpose and no regrets.
May your chests fill with pride at what we have done and may your hearts
fill with optimism at the better future that we shall create.
15. Join me today in voting to
move our party into merger with the ANPP, CPC, other parties and organizations
to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.
I assure you that the place we
are going will be your house of political fulfillment. We shall have a
meaningful voice in the APC. The principles of democracy, justice, visionary
governance and liberty that shaped the ACN shall carry over into the APC. The
new party will be as welcome a home as the ACN. It will just be a bigger house
for a larger political family.
It shall be this family that
saves Nigeria by bringing to the people the creative policies that promote wide
prosperity, employment, infrastructural overhaul, education, health care, civil
rights, peace, stability and justice.
Thus vote with me to close the
historic and noble chapter on the ACN so that we can begin a new and bigger
book called the APC.
16. For us this is not a sad
ending, it is but the beginning of a great beginning. Let us do what is right
so that when history writes its account of this day, it shall write that we
lived up to our moral duties by doing what the moment required.
For a better Nigeria, the ACN
must join with other parties to merge into the APC.
This is our last best hope. There
is nothing else to do. Thank you and God bless this convention and God Bless
Nigeria.
Adejoh Momoh (momoh.adejoh@gmail.com) can be followed on twitter @adejoh
