{"id":4589,"date":"2015-03-18T03:32:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T03:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=4589"},"modified":"2015-03-18T03:32:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T03:32:09","slug":"buhari-enemy-of-change-falae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=4589","title":{"rendered":"Buhari enemy of change – Falae"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elder statesman and National Chairman of the Social Demo\u00adcratic Party (SDP), Chief Samuel Oluyemisi Falae pulled no punch\u00ades on Sunday while reacting to a statement credited to the presi\u00addential candidate of the All Pro\u00adgressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari that last year\u2019s national conference was a waste of time and money.<\/p>\n

The statement, according to Falae, is clear proof that Buhari and the APC do not represent the change that Nigerians yearn for.<\/p>\n

In reaction, the spokesman of the APC, Chief Lai Mohammed, fired back at Falae, saying that the position of the former Secretary to the Federal Government was fi\u00adnancially induced.<\/p>\n

General Buhari had, while speaking with a group of youths at a meeting in Lagos State, de\u00adclared that the Federal Govern\u00adment spent over N7 billion on the conference which he described as a waste.<\/p>\n

Buhari said that the sum should have been spent in developing the country, particularly the educa\u00adtional sector, adding that there was no need for a national conference since the two chambers of the Na\u00adtional Assembly could make laws for the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Sunday Falae who was a delegate to the conference, said that Buhari\u2019s statement was an indication that the APC and its candidates have nothing to offer the country.<\/p>\n

Falae is a leader of the pan-Yo\u00adruba socio-political association, the Afenifere Committee, which not only endorsed the conference but also hinged its support for the continuation in office of President Goodluck Jonathan on the imple\u00admentation of the resolutions of the talkshop.<\/p>\n

Speaking through his media officer, Remi Olayiwola while dis\u00adtributing 20 bundles of Iron sheets and nails to displaced residents of Ifira Akoko whose houses were re\u00adcently destroyed by thunderstorm, Falae declared that the opposition party does not truly represent the change it has been preaching.<\/p>\n

He insisted that the implementa\u00adtion of the report of the National Conference is the change Nigeria desired.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe statement of Gen. Buhari is a glaring evidence that APC is an enemy of the progress of Nigeria and Nigerians. For over 100 years, Nigeria has remained static. And for over 20 years, prom\u00adinent Nigerians including the APC leadership have been clamouring for National Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cLagos State has 20 local govern\u00adments areas while Kano has 44. The two states were created same time. Don\u2019t forget that Jigawa has been created out of Kano and the population of Lagos is higher than the two states combined together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Falae continued: \u201cThey are looking at the monetary aspect without the effect it has on the gen\u00aderality of the people. This again shows them as the enemies of the people. How many of their leaders were as rich as this in 1999?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the report, it gives control over solid minerals to the states. Some will score 250 in Join Admission Matriculation Board examination, yet they will not get admission, while those who score less than 200 will get admission simply because they come from ed\u00aducationally disadvantaged states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe APC and those who are beneficiaries of the corrupt sys\u00adtem don\u2019t want change in the status quo. They want to change personalities at the helm of affairs without changing the system so that they would continue to cor\u00adruptly enrich themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falae added that such \u201creckless statement\u201d from Buhari would affect the chances of his party in the forthcoming general elections, adding that Nigeria only deserved structural change.<\/p>\n

The SDP national chairman, who directed that the roofing sheets and nails be given to over 200 people who were affected by the rainstorm in the community, said the focus of his party was the welfare of the masses.<\/p>\n

In reaction, the National Public\u00adity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, declared that Fa\u00adlae\u2019s position was induced by the money given to the conferees by the Jonathan government.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe likes of Falae are only working for the money they have collected from the ruling par\u00adty. The National Conference was a sheer waste of time and resources and it was a time-buying mecha\u00adnism on the part of the President and his party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The APC spokesman continued: \u201cEvery Nigerian knows that the process of amending the constitu\u00adtion as it is today is very cumber\u00adsome as it has to go through the two chambers of the National As\u00adsembly and all 36 states of the fed\u00aderation before any amendment to it could be passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe APC as a party decided that we will not attend the confab because of these things since we realised that the conference alone could not bring about the desired restructuring that we have always stood for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed, who noted that the APC allowed its governors to peo\u00adple from their states to participate in the confab, added that it was after postponing the elections that the President began to move round the country, promising to imple\u00adment the report of the confab.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe question is: what has been done to this report since the confab ended? They have not done anything to the report since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed continued: \u201cThe process for constitution change is very clear. Let me tell you, if the President wins this election, God forbids, that is the end of the con\u00adfab report. They have not imple\u00admented one thing there since then and they cannot do it. They know that. They are only selling dum\u00admies to people of the South West that they would implement the confab report.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said further: \u201cI say here that their efforts to trick South West people will fail. People of South West are a proud people; they are not for sale. Bribing traditional rulers of the region will not solve the problem. Take an APC-controlled state and compare it to a PDP-controlled state and see the difference. South West people are too sophisticated politically than to be bought over by dollar rains. Their conscience cannot be bought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth of the matter is that the President convoked the confab because of tenure elongation and that did not happen. That is why we say that the N7 billion spent on the confab was a waste of nation\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for us in the APC, we will restructure the country genuinely, but not the way they have gone about theirs. Let me ask you: was any member of the confab elected by the people? No. they were all nominees. The confab was not a sovereign one. With this, it is clear that they cannot restructure the country. They are only dangling the carrot of confab report im\u00adplementation before the Yoruba people. They cannot do it. The con\u00adstitution does not allow it. Yoruba people are too sophisticated to be bought over. Falae has collected money and he is simply working for the money he collected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Muhammadu-Buhari\"<\/a>
Muhammadu-Buhari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elder statesman and National Chairman of the Social Demo\u00adcratic Party (SDP), Chief Samuel Oluyemisi Falae pulled no punch\u00ades on Sunday while reacting to a statement credited to the presi\u00addential candidate of the All Pro\u00adgressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari that last year\u2019s national conference was a waste of time and money. The statement, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[171,194],"class_list":["post-4589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-buhari","tag-falae"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Muhammadu-Buhari-360x225.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1c1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4590,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions\/4590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}