Jonathan moves to calm ‘political tension’

President Goodluck Jonathan has asked politicians to help bring down the political tension in the country ahead of the 2015 elections.

He was addressing the All Political Parties and Political Stakeholders Summit held at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.

In attendance were former heads of state, Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme.

Jonathan said: “The current national political outlook with regard to inter-party collaboration is less than salutary. Indeed, the conduct and utterances of leading politicians at home and abroad are rapidly creating and spreading unnecessary tension in the country.

“Unguarded utterances on their part fester the embers of discord, bitterness and rancour.  Such unfortunate developments play into the hands of extremist elements waging a vicious campaign of terror against the Nigerian State.”

He said recent security challenges, namely the Chibok kidnappings and blasts in Nyanya, Jos and Adamawa “are better addressed by a political class which is united in its commitment to defend the polity irrespective of political differences”.

The summit, he said, offered “the opportunity for political parties and, indeed, politicians to reflect and review the possible consequences their actions, conduct and utterances in the recent past have had and could have, on our polity, national security and corporate existence.

“This summit must be an occasion for political rejuvenation and re-orientation.  Its outcome must be a common stand against all and any anti-democratic forces that are currently waging a vicious and mindless war against the state.”

Jonathan asked political party affiliates to work with one another “and conduct themselves with responsibility and statesmanship focused on positive inputs into governance, whether they be in power at present or not”.

He cited instances in Nigeria’s political history when parties closed ranks for the sake of the national interest.

“Nigeria’s political history since independence is replete with examples of viable collaborations among political parties, in and out of government. In the First Republic, the ruling Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) had an alliance with the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), which allowed the leader of the latter, the late Right Honourable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to become the President of Nigeria.

“In the Second Republic, a unique alliance between the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) made it possible for the NPP, which did not have a majority in the House, to produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“At the commencement of the Fourth Republic, on invitation by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), members of opposition parties were appointed Ministers, Special Advisers to the President and into other positions in government. Indeed, the first Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs, the late Senator Mahmud Waziri, was the founding National Chairman of the then opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP),” he said.