To Stop Dollar Rain At APC Convention, Okeckukwu Asks Buhari To Push For Consensus

Foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to push for consensus at the forthcoming convention of the party and by that avoid further abuse of the naira through a dollar rain as allegedly transpired at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP convention.

In a statement made available to journalists, Sunday, in Abuja, Okechukwu, who is also the Director General (DG) of Voice of Nigeria (VON), decried what he described as the dollar rain during the recent Presidential primary of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National Stadium Abuja.

He cited the withdrawal comments of Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, a financial guru, saying that President Buhari should support the use of consensus method to ensure that the forthcoming APC presidential primary does not follow the PDP’s highest bidder Dollar Rain.

In his speech before withdrawing from the PDP primary,  the former banker, Hayatu-Deen, said, “it is, therefore, based on personal principles and with great humility that I have decided, after wide consultation, to withdraw from this contest, which has been obscenely monetised.”

Okechukwu stated: “Albeit, our sister opposition political party has every constitutional right to elect whoever they want as their flag bearer; the Dollar rain is worrisome as noted by Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who dubbed it obscenely monetised presidential primary.

   “Sincerely, I congratulate His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar on his emergence from the opposition party primary. But, as a patriot and stakeholder in the Nigeria project, I am worried by PDP’s induced Dollar Rain, which led to unprecedented depreciation of the Naira.”

Therefore, Okechukwu called on President Buhari to consider the consensus option to be adopted in the APC presidential primary election to save the Naira through another dollar rain.

He lamented the monumental harm PDP’s Dollar Rain did to the nation’s economy, saying “if that could happen in a party with about 731 delegates, imagine what will happen if APC with about 2, 322 delegates is allowed to indulge in Dollar Rain.”

His words: “If the Naira is already bleeding because of Dollar Rain on 731 delegates; please better imagine the degree of depreciation of the Naira if another blitz of Dollar Rain is allowed to be splashed on 2,322 delegates? This is the farming season, as such the Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution would also be at risk if the Naira is allowed to depreciate further. Prices of fertilizer, seedlings and other farm implements will hit roof top.”

 Besides the harp on a dollar rain charged on why he was calling for consensus instead of direct and indirect mode of primary election, which are more democratic than consensus, the APC chief said: “All the three are democratic and are in our law books. Please, is it not paradoxical that the governors, and ex-governors who oppose consensus had adopted same consensus and even outright imposition to select their successors? To me they have lost the moral high ground to oppose Mr President from adopting such legal mode of primary election. One’s appeal is that politically correct aspirant should be consensually presented.”

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG