Hon. Yakubu Dogara
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has warned the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against rejoicing over the crisis within the All Progressives Congress, APC, because the governing party has the capacity to overcome its challenges and therefore would not allow the PDP snatch power from it come 2019.
The Speaker who disclosed this yesterday noted that politicians within the fold of the PDP are basking in the euphoria of the heat generated by the recent contest for leadership posts in the National Assembly and hoping that such will give the opposition party an edge over the APC.
Stressing that those with such mindset are only deceiving themselves, Dogara asserted that opposition politicians are rejoicing too early about their party’s chances of retaking power at the Federal level come 2019.
He may be apparently referring to Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who following his return as the number two man in an APC dominated Senate, had last week boasted that his “emergence was a sign of the PDP reclaiming what was taken from it by the APC in 2019”.
The Speaker laughed off this claim while playing host to a delegation of the defunct 2014 Presidential Primaries Committee of the APC which paid him a courtesy call in his office, where he insisted that the APC was resolute in delivering the change it promised Nigerians.
He assured that the dust raised by the contest in the National Assembly for the leadership of the two chambers which caused uproar in the party, was not enough issue that will destabilize the governing party.
Dogara posited that what transpired in the party, before, during and after the bitter contest was merely a conflict of ideas by various interests involved in the process of selecting presiding officers for the Legislature.
“We are here to work and we don’t have any reason to fail. We can’t fail. That’s why I pick holes in the ambition of those who have their eyes fixed on 2019”.
“We didn’t get here because of 2019. If we do the right things and the people see results, 2019 will take care of itself. We can’t fail because we are here to bring change,” he said.
While urging members of the APC to stop seeing the misunderstanding and conflict of interest precipitated by the contest as crises, the Speaker stressed that the party has the capacity to manage every member and their interests.
“People talk about crisis in the party, I don’t see any crisis. Even if there is, the Party has the capacity to deal with whatever issue pertaining to its members and their interests,” he stated.
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