SPEECH AT ANRP NATIONAL CONGRESS. YARADUA CENTRE 22
APRIL, 2016. BY TOPE FASUA, INTERIM NATIONAL CHAIRMAN
ANRP! ABUNDANT NIGERIA!
ABUNDANT NIGERIA! THIS IS OUR OWN!!
ANRP! RENEWAL, RENAISSANCE, RESPECT!!!
I recognize members of our Interim National Executive Committee
here seated. Welcome to our National Congress. I recognize and
welcome members of our Board of Trustees here present. You are
most welcome. I recognize also State Leaders and all Delegates
from the states. We commend your efforts to make it down here to
this august occasion. We also welcome observers who may not be
our members yet but are here to get a feel of our mindset and
operations, and to understand a lot more about the vision behind
ANRP. I have a few broad issues to throw light upon.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS MEETING
This National Congress is internal to us. We are nearing the last
stages of our full registration as a political party. At this stage for
most political parties, there will be less than 50 members. In many
cases it will just be the prime mover and a few of his friends –
usually from one area of the country or the other. ANRP however
evolved differently. We are by far one of the most organic political
projects ever in Nigeria. From a core idea from a few people, we
promptly democratized and invited in all who believe in our core
ideas. There was a need to ensure diversity, and in no time, we
have been able to reach to 36 states of the Federation and the
Federal Capital Territory.
We are nudging the 10,000 mark, which is quite symbolic. Many
are joining us on a daily basis because they see our great
potentials. The idea behind ANRP is our own idea, for a new
generation of Nigerians to say ‘we can do this, and Nigeria can
work’. We shall be speaking about some of our core beliefs which
are at variance with the status quo and what Nigeria has been used
to. In view of the quick uptake of the idea called ANRP, it has
become imperative to continue along democratic lines and share
information. We add hundreds everyday and so there is a need to
keep everyone abreast. That is why we invited you all to come to
this august occasion so that you may be further energized to
propagate the idea in your different spheres of influence.
We have also called this meeting to ratify some of our internal
documents and appointments. The next stage of INEC approval
expects us to show the adoption of our Manifesto and Constitution.
For months we have been discussing critical aspects of these
documents on WhatsApp, Facebook and our other platforms of
engagement. There is a need to get serious. We need to also ensure
that anyone joining us understands and adhereS to our core
principles. Our Constitution and Manifesto shall be forwarded to
INEC after these meeting and they shall be vetted to ensure we are
not planning anything ultra vires the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Law, and the INEC Guidelines for
Political Parties. We know that we are not doing anything of such.
We believe it is very democratic to call a big meeting and adopt
these documents, whilst documenting the adoption properly before
approaching INEC.
Lastly, we have called this meeting in order to get some of our
national officers to come to Abuja and sign what the INEC simply
calls the Form PA1 – Particulars of officers of a party. There is no
way we can move the 50 forms from one state to another. Please
note, that whoever has signed these forms from among our interim
officers, shall be asked to come back to Abuja when INEC shall be
visiting our head office. Some of the officers are filling the space
pending when we get substantive state chairmen in their locations.
We have made clear the criteria for becoming a state chairman
which includes self-sustenance, leadership skills and maturity, and
ability to mobilise new members and ultimately win votes. The few
exceptions have been made aware of this fact and in ANRP we have
no controversies because we are selfless, mature, and nationalistic.
When we are through from here today, we shall all take a drive to
the location of our National Headquarters along the Airport Road,
which is also strategic. ANRP shall be the first political party
anyone coming into Abuja from the airport, or from the Kogi State
axis sees when coming in, and the last when going out. The idea
will surely register, and the world will come and see what we are
doing.
OUR NAME
Many of us will get cynical comments about our name. There is a
history behind it, and each word has a meaning and significance.
There was a buildup to the name. First we had to have NIGERIA in
our name because as a political party populated by mostly the
young and the young-at-heart, the status quo expects that we shall
try and foster out-of-this-world, unworkable or foreign concepts
and ideas. Many status quo defenders expect that our heads are in
the skies and ultimately that we are disrespectful and disdainful of
the very idea of Nigeria. We therefore needed to let them know that
we are all about NIGERIA. We know for a fact that the concept of
Nigeria is flawed, and that the union presents with many blemishes
but we are here to see how we can make it work. We believe that
our past leaders may have allowed their egos, self-worship and
self-aggrandisement to come in the fray and determine every other
thing, and so the idea of Nigeria has been mismanaged. We can see
how that plays out in the public space with the amounts that are
being revealed as personal heists by people who have led Nigeria or
led institutions within Nigeria, in a country where 65-70% live
beneath the poverty line, and where the same proportion of youth
go without employment and nothing to engage their minds beyond
football, mostly mind-numbing Nollywood movies, other foreign
soap operas and of course sports betting (Baba Ijebu). We observe
that there are even larger and more diverse countries like India,
China, and a number of them in Africa here – like Ethiopia – that
are finally getting their acts together or approaching First World
status. We understand the mentality among some Nigerians
whereby they expect things to evolve easily or through divine
intervention. However, it is our firm belief that for any country to
move forward, it’s people must put in the effort, and its leaders
must SERVE and SACRIFICE. We also believe that leaders must be
able to engage the difficult issues with level heads and open hearts
else every discussion breaks down before it starts. We are
assembling Nigeria’s best today and with God’s help, we shall make
a dent on Nigeria’s problems, in or out of government. Already, we
see changes happening because of some of our interventions.
And so we needed to make a point that this is a NIGERIAN party.
Yes, PARTY. This is a party, not just a movement. Maybe it’s a
movement in your mind and that is okay. The idea behind ensuring
that this is a party is because many times in Nigeria we have seen
so many ‘movements’ come and go. The ruling governments treat
movements as a conglomeration of people that need to be appeased,
but we are not here for appeasement. We are here as a people who
have come together, collecting together their innocence, energy,
intelligence and patriotism, to say ‘here we are, send us’, for we
intend to be the ones our society, and ourselves have been waiting
for. We don’t mind being a ‘movement’, but we believe that a
political party is the starting point if we intend to get things going
at all. We want to get in on the ground floor and comply with all
regulations and create something of our own. We want our every
effort to count. Any movement that is not a political party is often
ignored by our leaders; their efforts seen as noisemaking. We say
no, we want to be stronger stakeholders in the Nigerian political
space. We also want to move beyond rhetoric and engage directly
in the leadership of our nation, using the skills and ideas we have
always espoused. This is why our party chant is THIS IS OUR OWN;
a concept and phrase that we have translated into 54 Nigerian
languages. But one could say we are still a movement because we
intend to attract a certain type of believers; the millions of
Nigerians who believe that things could be much better than this,
and that they are ready to be part of the service and sacrifice for a
great nation to be reclaimed. That is why we are pointing to the
ABUNDANCE of Nigeria and our motto is RENEWAL, RENAISSANCE,
RESPECT!
But that brings me to the slogan. ABUNDANT NIGERIA! These are
the first two words of our name. It seems easy to derive but it is
also carefully put together. The word ABUNDANT is deliberate and
well-researched. With the volumes of stolen dollars being
discovered all over Nigeria today; including the vast amounts that
have yet to be found and that our security agencies are not even
bothering to look for perhaps because they are being held by sacred
cows, every Nigerian will agree that fundamentally, Nigeria is
ABUNDANT in resources, in wealth, and most importantly, in
Human Capital. The issue then is; why have a few people ensured
that the ABUNDANCE of Nigeria remains with a very tiny clique? Is
this not the height of myopia and wickedness? What does a single
person need $10million for when they’ve headed the nation’s most
profitable revenue agency and have millions of dollars in cash and
property elsewhere? Is it not extremely cynical that these monies
are kept among the poorest communities in Nigeria, where people
can hardly find clean water or the next cheap meal? There is a
point that we begin to examine the Nigerian mind to see if there
isn’t something fundamentally wrong with our thinking process.
Why would another keep $50million in some luxury estate and such
money becomes an orphan in a country looking for foreign
borrowing to finance its current year, and future budgets? Are we
not ridiculous? Why are we unleashing financial and psychological
violence on children yet unborn and even the ones seeing all these
happen?
So we decided to choose ABUNDANT because it is not only unique
but speaks to our past, present and future circumstance as a
people. We MUST tap into that ABUNDANCE no matter what some
feel, because the ABUNDANCE belongs to EVERY NIGERIAN. No
matter people’s tribes or religions, every one of us could make do
with some level of ABUNDANCE for now. This is also a positive
word (ABUNDANCE/ABUNDANT), that can be spun in different
ways over the course of an electioneering campaign. It is all
positive. I peep into the future, and what I see is that great things
will be done with this name, and with it we shall bring profound
change into this long-suffering, much-battered, woebegone, overlyraped, and up-till-we-came-on-the-scene, unfortunate country. Lest
I forget, we chose the word ABUNDANT, because if the names of
Nigeria’s political parties are arranged alphabetically we shall be
around number one. But if according to acronym, we will still be
near the top. This is much better than expecting old people already
losing their sights to find our names from among the crowd in the
overly long ballot paper.
Then RENEWAL. As much as we want to emphasise the positivity of
our incursion into the Nigerian space, we cannot forget why we
became a necessary invention in the first place; the need to RENEW
Nigeria. You see, everyone comes and makes the same claim, but
we are ready to live our talk, to walk the talk, to stand by our
words. Why is this so? Because we are pragmatic and truthful
enough to assess the current situation and honestly decipher the
real issues. We are ready to point out the surprising negligences
and excesses that have compounded Nigeria’s situation over the
decades and put a stop to them going forward. It is often easy; a
nation in an economic recession should not be thinking of buying
the latest Japanese luxury cars by the hundreds for its legislators or
government appointees. If Nigeria wasn’t a fallen elephant which
sees all sorts of people’s daggers cutting away, this will not
happen. Over N20billion is budgeted for new luxury cars in this
year’s Federal Budget. By the time we add what the states are
budgeting (say N10billion each), we are looking at far above a
billion dollars being pumped out of the country in hard-worn
foreign currency in a season of want, where a majority of the
citizens scrounge the streets for what to eat, just to satisfy ego
trips. These people are not even thinking of patronizing our local
car manufacturers yet they preach to the people to buy local?
Again, we are not trying to blame government alone for the
Nigerian situation, because we understand that governance is not a
walk in the park. However, we lay a major portion of the blame on
the lack of vision of those we call leaders, as well as their
compromises, their dishonesty, their hypocrisy, and of course their
pathological greed in several instances as we have seen.
THIS IS OUR OWN!
Actually, we started out with NIGERIA RENEWAL PARTY (NRP). We
were sure that Nigeria needed a new political platform and a new
conversation. We waited for someone to start this conversation but
no one was moving. We knew that Nigeria needed a RENEWAL. We
needed to do things differently and with every dollop of new
responsibility. Our public space needs new governance. We need to
rework the way we handle public finance. There is a need to have a
relook at the way our public places are being maintained because
serious countries take even more care in maintaining their parks,
monuments, and tourist places, than they care about their private
abodes. In Nigeria, we think more of building personal mansions
and castles and leave decrepit our public spaces because some
smart Alec civil servant or politician comes around and usurps all
the funds, leaving public institutions high and dry. Fraud, forgery
and embezzlement have been elevated into an art form in our
society and Nigeria has become a subject of ridicule among serious
nations, now more than ever before.
More than 5,000 Nigerians emigrated across the Sahara, through
Sokoto State into Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Libya, Algeria and
Morocco, to cross the tempestuous Mediterranean Sea in the year
2016 alone, in a year where we started with hope but were met
with despair. Most of these 5,000 Nigerian citizens, princes and
princesses in their own country, are being held in different asylum
centres in Italy, France, Cyprus and any other country the
whirlwinds of the seas pushed them to, waiting to be deported, or
to be ‘luckily’ let into those countries to do the jobs preserved for
modern day slaves. Look, there is nowhere left in the world where
easy money can be made. The lucky ones who made it to Europe,
whether in holding pens of Asylum shacks, are thanking theirs stars
because more than half of them who start the journey die in the
desert; women, children and aged people. Beyond Nigeria’s woes,
we must not stop reminding ourselves that on a global scale, our
economic and sociopolitical woes, are simply and totally
unacceptable.
Do we need to be reminded that the NIGERIAN, as blessed as
he/she is, as opportune as he/she is, as resourceful as he/she is, as
endowed with strength and wisdom as he/she can be, as admired as
he/she can be, has presently shrunk to the status of an anathema in
many corners of the earth; it’s people deported daily by the droves,
attacked and killed by racists and befallen with calamity in the
different places they try to hide their heads in different corners of
the earth? We are being deported by Gabon, Cameroon, Libya, from
all over Europe, South Africa (where our citizens are being attacked
and killed) and perhaps every country in the world. We are
increasingly seen as nuisances in these places and worse, we are
being attacked in India, in China, in Thailand, and in the dark alleys
of Europe and the Americas. This is certainly not the way we should
live, or the fate that should befall a people such as ours. But we
remember that even at home, we often display inhumanity to
ourselves and so, many Nigerians believe it is better to be
brutalized abroad than at home. Even when xenophobic attacks
claimed lives in South Africa, Nigerians interviewed there
vehemently refused to come back home for this same reason. We
should sit back and think of the mentality that makes our own
people despise this blessed country so much. It is not because they
are frivolous. Some of them have faced harrowing situations in
Nigeria precipitating their exit, never to return again. Some of
them have also become the breadwinners of their extended families
doing whatever job they are doing in those foreign countries. Why
has a country of ABUNDANCE ejected its best brains and deprived
those who have stayed back the benefit of the country of their
birth?
That is the question facing us today.
So, if they ask you about our cobbled name again, tell them it is two
for the price of one. You can call us ABUNDANT NIGERIA. That
seems to be sticking these days. But you can also call us RENEWAL
PARTY, because we cannot forget that our mission is NOT to come
and perpetuate the status quo. We are here for a new Nigeria; a
much-better country where things are done much differently. We
were lucky to have taken this name and acronym ANRP to INEC. By
the time we got there we passed 2 out of 3 criteria. The name and
acronym sailed at first consideration and we only had to reconsider
the logo. After several turn-downs, we thought of what exactly
defines us as a party and settled on technology, innovation, and our
youthful passion. Technology is therefore represented by the
computer in our logo, while the inset plant represents our
youthfulness, passion, and potentials, and the fact that we cannot
forget our GREEN outlook and the need for the nation to feed itself.
That is only the starting point.
OUR VISION
We started all of this in the middle of December 2016. We were
propelled by the need for us to ‘do something’, rather than sit
around on social media complaining about government past or
present. We knew that we were the government. We were driven
by an analogy, that if a man or woman gets married and gives birth
to children, nurtures and trains them through nursery, primary and
secondary schools, tops it up with university and watches them go
for youth service, the parent’s ultimate aim is to see his/her
children go out in the world and get a job, get married, make their
own money, live in their own flat, and possibly send something
back home. The parent expects that the child does many things that
he/she (the parent) could never do. We expect our children to be
better than us in many things, just as many of us are better than
our parents in technology and other areas of human existence. We
expect to use and appreciate the innovations of our children. Alas,
politically, we are stunted. My generation is stunted. We refused to
evolve politically even as we evolved academically. Some people in
my generation made a lot of money, and are today defined by that
money, but they totally lost track of another critical factor; nationbuilding. In fact many of our generation got the money, at the
expense of their participation in nation-building. Many cannot step
out to claim that they want to build a better Nigeria because our
people know exactly how they came about their untold riches. But
in the times of our fathers, they sent us to public schools and were
able to think about nation-building, because they mostly lived
honest lives. In our time, we send our children to private schools
and are bothered everyday with existential issues; school fees, bare
survival, or our unnecessary excesses – holidays abroad, expensive
gadgets, brand new cars and so on.
And so the vision we have is for a party that can redefine the
conversation, that can redefine Nigeria’s politics. We want to build
an institution that can shape Nigeria’s future in a positive way. We
want to be the reference point, we want to do that which no other
political party has done in our country. And we are encouraged not
to be indifferent to the situation of Nigeria by this quote from
Martin Luther King Junior:
“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail
to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every
society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the
indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions.
Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to
adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of
change.”
OUR IDEOLOGY
John Kenneth Galbraith, a world-renowned economist and
diplomat, known for his groundbreaking researches and out-of-the
box thinking, once said; “under capitalism, man exploits man. Under
communism, it’s just the opposite.”
Many have been asking us for our ideology. And when they ask,
they usually have the mindset to look out for whether we are crass
capitalists in nature, looking for money and riches by any and every
means, or if not, whether we are socialists who want to urge people
to go to sleep and remain dependent on government. We are
neither capitalists not socialists/communists; but we have an
ideology.
Our ideology is pragmatic. Our ideology is everything we stand for. I once
wrote below when someone was confused on one of our WhatsApp groups
and asked what we stood for:
We stand for accountability.
We stand for modernity.
We stand for global best practices in good governance.
We abhor waste of any form.
We stand for speed, accuracy and urgency in delivering good governance to
our people.
We stand for the youth and encourage them to take leadership positions.
We stand for a breakaway from Nigeria's sordid past.
We stand for the UNITY of Nigeria.
We stand for hope in a time of despair.
We stand for the opportunity to give this great nation another chance.
We stand for respect. Respect for ourselves, for those around us, for
children unborn and for our God-given resources.
We abhor stealing and corruption and mindless looting of Nigeria's
commonwealth as has been going on.
We stand for inclusiveness – protection of minority rights, for a nation is
judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. So we stand for the most
vulnerable amongst us.
We give ourselves and others a chance to be heard.
We stand for sustainability in resource management
We want businesses to thrive.
We promote entrepreneurship.
We want markets to take hold BUT at our stage of national development and
the non-governance that has been Nigeria's lot for decades we cannot
abandon Nigeria and Nigerians simply to ‘market forces’. Good governance
entails strong institutions that protect citizens. Good governance can exist
side-by-side with market forces.
We have over 150 out of 180 million Nigerians to back up and ensure they
aren't thrown to the fangs of the market. To this extent we encourage all
our members to get something doing, and we will also be a job creator as a
party, using our environmental ideology.
We stand for the environment.
We believe we can achieve the ambience for our country like what we see
when we go abroad or watch in movies.
We stand for the people because that is the final essence of government.
We are all about rehumanizing our people who have been dehumanized by
decades of non-governance.
We are committed to SERVICE and SACRIFICE.
We believe Nigerians can live much better lives than this and that we have
all the resources we need to make this happen; our Human Capital being the
most important.
We stand for authentic and mindful leadership that is propelled by honesty
and example.
We are eclectic and intelligent and nuanced and refined and versatile.
We are therefore post-ideological in that you cannot put us in a box and go
to sleep. No, you cannot easily summarize and pigeonhole us because we
make you THINK.
We are a new force for good like nothing Nigeria has ever seen before.
We are the ones Nigeria been waiting for.
So, if anyone can help cobble out a single word that defines all of
these pertinent issues as an ideology, it will be highly welcome. We
are however very happy to be the party that seeks to do the right
thing and to do right by Nigerians by focusing on what matters to
our people at this moment, no matter what those actions may be.
We see that Nigerians have been greatly traumatized. Imagine
people who have to sleep on empty stomachs seeing billions of
Naira and millions of dollars displayed on network news being
heists from those whom they entrusted to lead them aright?
Imagine the con jobs that our politicians have wrought on our
people whom they cajole and court during campaigns, and promptly
abandon to filth, stench and lack of infrastructure, disease and
want afterwards. Imagine that it is seen as a thing of pride for
politicians to ride in noisy convoys, chasing away and brutalizing
the populace who voted for them? And these people know that
abroad the only sirens you hear are ambulances. These practices
cannot be right and we are here to put an end to such. This is not
just another party saying all the right things with a view to
grabbing power. Members and prospective members should please
avail themselves of our constitution to see what we intend to
achieve. They should also see our manifesto for our promises. This
is not a chop-i-chop party of anything goes. The ideology of the
party is to come and do governance right by re-enfranchising our
people, politically, socially and economically. Nigerians have lived
for too long in conditions that are globally unacceptable and
reprehensible.
STRATEGY
Our strategy evolves organically based on the clear and clean
conscience with which we are approaching Nigeria’s politics. Some
people believe we should focus on obtaining only one local
government in Nigeria and using that as example. Others say one
state. That is great. But it is under-ambitious. If we take only one
local government, what will our members be doing in the other 773
local governments that we have not taken? Lounging around and
waiting for eternity? That is bad strategy. On the other extreme,
some have also called to express their intention to contest for
presidency on our platform. Their focus is on the big office but no
one can achieve such feat without achieving great traction at the
grassroots. One will need at least 10 million votes to win
presidency in Nigeria today. But 10million votes will surely win a
number of state governorship elections and a great number of
legislative seats at state and national level.
I believe we can achieve something close to this if only we will
have faith and work really hard. We have already been approached
by about 8 political parties and organisations, some seeking to
work with us. We are not making any promises for now because we
have a party to build. We are currently nudging 10,000 in number
and we are aware that in a scenario such as this, the strength one
brings to the table is what determines who gets what. If we could
grow our verifiable number to hundreds of thousands or even
millions, no political organization can dismiss our voice in Nigeria.
And that is what we are aiming for. Already at 10,000, we are
bigger than most registered parties in Nigeria, and definitely more
than any of those at our level. You see those annoying WhatsApp
groups of ours which runs down your battery? Respect them,
because no political party has that structure in Nigeria today.
None. And the connections are important because on voting day, we
shall use it to encourage and nudge ourselves to go and vote –
without campaigning – and we shall use them to collate our own
results by taking pictures of results sheets, so that no one can cheat
us in spite of their intentions.
So in terms of strategy, we aim to shoot for the skies and hopefully
find ourselves among the stars. Our key weapon is our
transparency. We have banished anything called ‘secret’ in our
party. All internal voting will be by open ballot or show of hands
and winners and losers will know clearly and everyone will be
useful in other areas within the party. As a party populated by
fairly young people, we must certainly leverage on the mistakes of
those who have gone ahead of us and mitigate. We must be able to
do things very differently.
FINANCES
This is a very crucial consideration which makes us unique. It is in
the area of financing that political parties crumble. We do not have
godfathers and don’t intend to find any. And so we instituted a
scenario where our members will pay tokens as subscriptions – like
it is done abroad. We urge that we take steps to comply because
this is a great opportunity. Nigerian youths especially have been
used to collecting from politicians, many of whom are their
oppressors who stole monies that belongs to the youth and then
give them back crumbs and bananas. We will not go down that
route. We understand the spiritual importance of being givers and
we have instituted accounts into which our members can make
their payments. This accounts will be rendered by our Treasurer on
a weekly basis. States and local governments cannot open accounts
yet until we solidify our head office structures and obtain our full
license. Even for now, we are unable to withdraw a dime from our
accounts because the banks want full documentation and they are
right. But please pay your dues. Now, our dues are compulsory for
those who want to be full members, those who have jobs or
businesses and especially those who intend to contest for internal
or open elections now or in the future. With the exception of this
maiden general meeting, voting at internal elections will be for full
members. We all know what it means when people who have no
stake in our party infiltrate our ranks and ‘vote’ us in the direction
of destruction.
We also accept donations to the party’s cause, no matter how small,
but we have put a cap on donations, because it is through donations
that fatcats in the country seize control of good ideas like ours and
then proceed to dictate who becomes what. Interviews granted by
bigwigs of our major parties show that it is in this area that they
made a big mistake and they regret it but cannot turn back the
hands of time. Many of them made big money but lost their dignity.
This is because many of our people see political parties as avenue
to amass untold wealth, forgetting that it should first be about
doing good for our longsuffering people. In time, we will encourage
even non-members who want to contribute as low as N1 to this
cause. By then our DONATE button on our website will be fully
activated and we can also generate funds via recharge cards and
other strategies.
We urge that our members step up to the plate and do the needful
with respect to their obligations to the party. For those who want
to run for elections, one of the questions that will be asked in our
nomination forms is ‘what have you done to contribute to party
growth?’ Also, we must not sit around, complaining about how
Nigeria is unfair to us while other people we do not know but who
know the importance of what we have come and take advantage.
We had mentioned from Day 1, that though we understand the
plight of Nigerian youths and will make provision for the current
level of unemployment in the nation, we are not here to promote
unemployment and poverty, therefore we will strive to create jobs
for our members even when we are in opposition, and we will be
ingenious in creating projects that can generate cash flow. ANRP
abhors the phenomenon of the ‘professional politician’ who has
never had a career or run a business for a day but manufactures a
large appetite to keep sucking on the lifeblood of the country, with
no compunction about usurping taxpayers’ resources to satisfy his
overbloated appetite.
INEC REGISTRATION SO FAR
We have met a few milestones on our journey to full registration.
We submitted our intention on the 16th of December, 2016. We got a
reply from INEC exactly 7 weeks later on the 3rd of February 2017.
We managed to comply with their requirements and got a ‘no
objection’ letter on the 3rd of March, 2017. We made our nonrefundable payment of N1,000,000 on the 8th of March, 2017. We
collected 50 Forms PA1 from INEC on the 14th of March, 2017. We
paid rent of N3.068million for our HQ, on the 18th of March, 2017
and have done up the office to a large extent since then, while we
planned for this great meeting. We are not losing a single day in
this great quest. We urge for your support. The next stage will be
for us to submit the Forms PA1, as well as 50 copies of our draft
constitution and manifesto which will be laid here today. INEC will
study our constitution and manifesto and when that is done, they
will agree a date with us for a visit to our HQ. When they come,
they will want to see at least 25 of our excos from 25 states of the
Federation, including the Federal Capital. We will call our National
Exco members to come to Abuja again, at their expense. We thank
them in advance. Note that that visit is more important than this
one.
CONTENTIOUS NATIONAL ISSUES.
We note that at the bottom of our minds are contentious national
issues. Nigeria has hurt many of us in different ways. Our leaders
have not helped but have played the role of deepening the wounds.
Even we have hurt ourselves with the things we say on social media
and elsewhere, many times under the cover of anonymity with
pseudonames and all. We know the issues Nigeria has around
restructuring, resource control, religion, tribalism, nepotism,
regionalism, secessions, porous borders, dependencies, terrorism,
and of course the acute mental problem which some people like to
deodorize by calling it corruption. We discuss many of these on our
platforms but we are still growing to the level where we can bring
as many of us as possible to discuss critical issues with level heads
and understand how to focus on debates in order to foster better
understanding. We are not there yet. Many Nigerians fly off the
handle, and otherwise interesting debates dissolve into rancor. We
however promise to keep issues like these on the cards, even as we
encourage our members to know that whatever position they take
today, there is a better position. And whatever sentiments they
share, they are often wrong in some aspects and right in others.
The challenge is to blend our opinions and consider what others
have in mind. That is the only way Nigeria can move forward. It is
because of the need to carefully manage these difficult issues that
we chose a flat structure in our party, whereby we did away with
zonal positions along geopolitical zones. We have no Vice Chairmen
of one zone or another, because we have seen from the experiences
of our big political parties that this fosters silo mentality and
tribalism.
All said and done, as we head out after our meeting, I urge us to
show the highest levels of maturity, sagacity and productivity in
our communications and engagement with the outside world. ANRP
is not in the business of criticism except it is highly constructive.
We shall not be cursing or abusing anyone. We will display the
highest levels of RESPECT. That is why RESPECT is our mantra.
Thank you very much for listening.
Tope Fasua
Protem Chairman
ANRP