Lagos State House of Assembly Aspirants 2015 on solidariy visit to the APC National Leader:
R-L: Tinubu (2nd left), Rafiu Obale, Niyi Fadare, Barr. Mutiu Olakunle Alimi, Princess Ronke and others
In a renewed bid to strengthen its loyalty to the All Progressives Congress, and its national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former aspirants to the Lagos State House of Assembly defend the leadership style of the party
Daniels Ekugo.
A group, the Lagos State House of Assembly Aspirants 2015 (LAHA 2015), has urged Nigerians to support the APC, and the national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to effect the desired change that brought it into office.
Leading the ‘We Are Loyal’ team was the Public Relations Officer, Mutiu Olakunle Alimi Esq (Apapa Constituency II) and its 206 members across Lagos State. He said: “The change we (Nigerians) desire as promised by the APC requires our collective effort to make it a reality. We must, individually and collectively, make sacrifices where necessary to help the APC leadership move Nigeria on the right path of development and growth.”
The body, according to Alimi, is the first in the political terrain of the South West. In his words: “We were compelled to come with an innovation in Nigerian politics, to the effect that, even while we were denied or not given the ticket to the house of assembly, we came together to move the party forward, agitating for justice within the party structure and not threatening to leave the party. No, we are not rebels. We are here to give the party the support it needs because we believe in the leadership of the party, it is not about ourselves, and it is about the party. We believe in the ideology of the party and want this to be a precedent to all elections when you lose out, you have to abide by the party’s decision, we know a lot went wrong and we believe in the leadership of the party to right the wrong.”
Its first assignment after being denied a ticket to the assembly edifice was the defence for the supremacy of the party and a call for support. As it put it: “As the ruling party, APC is strongly committed to ensuring the implementation of the party’s manifesto to improve the lives of the citizenry. To do this properly and successfully, the party believes that there should be strong support from party members, especially our legislators, to assist the APC-led administration to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
Alimi stated: “The APC came with a vision and mission to change situations in the country, to improve the lives of the citizenry regardless of political differences, religious and cultural affiliations or sentiments. The party will remain committed to this mission with utmost sense of commitment. Therefore, discipline and loyalty are key ingredients to achieve this vision and mission successfully”.
Answering questions on the recent crisis that has engulfed the National Assembly, Alimi told TheNEWS: “You see, in constitutional democracies, the party is the rallying point for politicians who share similar political opinions and ideas. The party develops a manifesto with a view to implementing it to improve the lives of the people. Therefore, as the ruling party, the importance of the APC in the affairs of the National Assembly and governance in general cannot be over-emphasised, nor its supremacy questioned.”
Commenting on the recent bids to make Asiwaju Bola Tinubu less visible despite his work to ensure the party won the 2015 elections, Alimi reminded Nigerians that the APC is an agglomeration of three parties and fractions of others. “As a result, it is quite clear that there are interest groups within the party as it is, and they just want to be relevant to actualize their goals. But, again, that will continue, that will not stop in any party, that is always there. And, of course, it is accentuated in a party where independent parties came together to sink their individuality and became one party. So those interests are there, there are pressures from outside, there are power groups within, interest groups within the APC.” People have contributed immensely to the success of the party and Tinubu is one of those people who contributed immensely, there is no question about that; we have to accept that and give all due credit to him, but so did a lot of other people contributed to the success that is the APC today” Alimi said.
Alimi arged frther: “To undermine Tinubu’s role in the struggle for change and now backstab him after using him to effect the change that we all so much desired in the country is to want to put our progress in Nigeria in a reverse gear. Nigerians who agitated for the change and made great sacrifice to get it will for sure be the losers for it. At some point in time, we as a people will have to reckon with the fact that this type of betrayal of trust should not happen among progressive people. We should know that the politics of survival as being practiced in Nigeria today would foreclose being straight and being committed to a righteous course, which we are advocating.”
On the group’s relationship with the national leader, Alimi said: “This is just to bring you back to what I have earlier said; Asiwaju’s immeasurable support to us is very cordial. We are here to show our solidarity to the father in him, we are solidly behind him, and also support the party right from electioneering to the finish, irrespective of any grievances which has been surmounted, we are giving our best and respect to Asiwaju for his fatherly role and we believe that he is a man of integrity, an institution of himself. We are his disciples and we abide by his leadership role.”
Alimi asserted that the APC also has strong bond with LAHA 2015. “Prior to the governorship election, Governor Akinwumi Ambode met us on the 23rd of March 2015, when we paid a courtesy visit to him. He supported us and aligned with what we stood for, which is synonymous with what the party stands for.”
What about dissenting voices? Alimi retorted: “This body has been hearing about people going about begging or extorting money from politicians to the effect that they lost out. But right now, we are sending a warning signal to anybody doing so to desist from such, because none of our member is hungry, we are not political jobbers and we wish this is just a rumour because our body seeks to move the party forward irrespective of what he or she feels. We believe in party supremacy.”