Posted on: 05:05 Tue, 08 Dec 2015



President Mohammadu Buhari and
other eminent Nigerians, Monday,
challenged the PDP and other
opposition parties in the country to
learn from the tenacity and rough
path to glory of the ruling All
Progressive Congress (APC) in order
to advance the democratic space and
good governance in the country.

They threw the challenge at the
public presentation ceremony of the
book: From Opposition to Governing
Party: Nigeria’s APC Merger Story,
written by the Minister of Science
and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu,
at Yar’ Adua’s Centre, Abuja.

In his remarks, President
Mohammadu Buhari, described the
book as a compendium of political
history of APC’s success story,
worthy of emulation by every
opposition party.

The President, who commended Onu
for authoring the book, traced the
history of APC’s merger, which said
was a very torteous journey for all
the merger forces that gave birth to
the ruling party.

He said the book would not only be
an asset to the economic
development of the country but also
politically. He stressed the need for
every politician and parties to learn
for the book what it takes to rise
from opposition to ruling party,
describing it as an intellectual
exercise.

‘‘Onu has not only contributed
economically by writing this book
but politically. It is a product of
intellectual and political work. We
are inclined not to learn from the
history but this book will serve as a
compendium of our checkered
political history for everyone to
learn from our political past and
move the nation forward.

‘‘Without the emergence of APC, PDP
would have killed Nigeria. That is
why we stood our ground tenaciously
in the midst of failures and
difficulties to form APC. After I lost
three times in the presidential
election I decided not to contest
again but people came and
persuaded me to run again, saying
that, ‘‘I no longer belong to myself
but to them and urged me to accept
their request.’’

He however, challenged the Minister
to use his wealth of experience and
intellect to transform the nation
through his ministry by producing
creative and innovative scientists.

‘‘As a scientist, I can trace my
relationship with Ogbonnaya Onu to
2005, during the early days of the
formation of APC merger. I throw
the challenge to him and I would
want to see how many world class
scientist he will produce for
Nigeria,’’ he said.
Vanguard