|
AD rejects national
dialogue, opts for SNC
�Nigeria is sliding into
chaos, warns Akande
By Tunde Abatan
Senior
Correspondent
The Alliance for Democracy
(AD) rose from an emergency national executive council (NEC) meeting in
Abuja on Tuesday with a call on President Olusegun Obasanjo to improve on
his proposed national dialogue by changing it to a sovereign national
conference (SNC).
It also chided those calling
on the Federal Government not to respect the Supreme Court ruling on the
withholding of Lagos State council funds.
In the six-point communiqu�
the AD also frowned at the composition of the committee to work out the
purported national dialogue, saying it consisted only of members of the
president�s party and personal staff without due representation of all
shades of opinion in the country.
Leader of the party, Chief
Bisi Akande, also warned that the present tense situation in the country
could degenerate into anarchy if not arrested by all well-meaning
democrats.
Declaring open the meeting,
Akande said the question before the party and other democrats is whether
to succumb to Obasanjo�s politics of intimidation.
He said the government under
Obasanjo had been left for too long to perpetrate evil acts, adding that
because the country belongs to all �we must assist him to provide
necessary safety valves to save the country from
destruction.�
The AD said the president�s
national dialogue option is an �open exhibition of ignorance and mischief
on the national question when the objective of the so-called national
dialogue is not disclosed.�
The party decried the
precarious state of the economy as could be seen in the high level of
poverty among the citizenry and the attendant high cost of living,
incessant increment in prices of petroleum products, high interest rates,
ineptitude and outright insensitivity of the administration to myriads of
problems confronting the country.
The party warned of an
imminent collapse of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) given
the �long hours of darkness now enveloping our nation in spite of huge
amounts of money reportedly invested in NEPA over the years under the
Obasanjo regime.
The AD also frowned at
attempts by some elements to confer on themselves appellate jurisdiction
on the judgment of the apex court by way of unguarded comment on the
court�s judgment on the release of fund withheld from Lagos
state.
The AD chairman likened the
situation in the country today to that of a government in deep doubt about
its legitimacy and cr sedibility, adding that as a result it is now using
its power as a vindictive weapon to intimidate and victimize the
opposition�.
He observed that for now the
electoral bodies and process in the
country are starved of funds and subjugated while the judiciary and
the press is materially induced and sometimes �their dedicated members are
intimidated to act according to the devices of the
government.�
| 
