12th January, 2010
Leadership Vaccum: Goodluck Jonathan Should Step In As Acting President
The Citizens Popular Party (CPP) sympathizes with President Umaru Yar’ Adua and his family over his protracted illness that has kept him out of the country since 23rd November, 2009, and joins millions of Nigerians in praying for his quick recovery.
It is however, pathetic and outrageous that the ship of the Nigerian state has drifted and careened along her perilous course for the past 50 days that President Yar’ Adua left for Saudi Arabia for a medical treatment and refused to handover power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President in tandem with Section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, which states:
“Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his Office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such functions shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President”.
The leadership fatigue and confusion in Abuja has not only paralyzed the nation, it has also endangered our frail democracy and brought Nigeria to international opprobrium, ridicule and disrepute.
We strongly condemn the calculated attempt by President Yar’ Adua to subvert and undermine the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that he swore to uphold, more so, given his administration’s strict observance to the rule of law mantra. It is a dangerous political naivety that projects the image of drift, amateurism and personal aggrandizement to the detriment of the welfare of 150 million Nigerians.
CPP invokes the genius, powers and majesty of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and calls on the National Assembly, the Federal Executive Council, the Council of State, the Governors’ Forum and the silent majority to speak out and take appropriate steps to restore the ship of the Nigerian state to the path of rectitude, progress and advancement.The failure of President Yar’Adua to do the right thing has caused exceptional tension in the polity fueling rumours and speculations of his health condition and whereabouts.
We now have a cripple presidency, an impotent National Assembly, a confused Federal Executive Council, a redundant Federal Civil Service and a prostrate populace. It is obvious that responsibilities abandoned today will return as more acute problems tomorrow. We call for patriotism and urge those in government to consider national interest and do the right thing today. Since the Constitution is sacrosanct, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should step in as Acting President immediately to save the nation from its pernicious path. The whole world is watching us.
BARR. MAXI OKWU
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN CPP & CNPP |