By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigerians seek peace, unity, and economic growth that cannot be attained if the All Progressives Congress (APC) controls the levels of federal power beyond 2023.
Expectation of a post-Muhammadu Buhari Nigeria was laid out on Monday by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which itself ruled the country from 1999 to 2015 and left it corrupt, looted, and lawless.
Public disaffection with the PDP led to the election of Buhari in 2015 in hopes he would clean up the system – only for the man to come up short with ineptitude, brandishing Fulani supremacy, and threatening Nigerians on a media parade.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, issued a statement which said Buhari’s plan to “launder the APC to remain in power” after his tenure is an effort in futility.
“Nigerians are no longer ready to put up with the wickedness of the APC, in its atrocious activities, treasury looting and ‘Janjaweed’ ideology of violence, with which they have held the nation captive in the last six years,” he added.
“Our party is informed of how desperate APC leaders, who have been indicted for treasury looting and aiding of terrorism in our country, are blackmailing … Buhari to use his media interviews to canvass the perpetuation of APC in power so as to shield them from prosecution at the inevitable end of his tenure in 2023.
The PDP said it is aware of how such individuals have been trying to force Buhari to commence an early campaign for the APC.
While not excusing the personal failures of Buhari as well as the incompetence that embodies his presidency, “it is incontrovertible that the APC, as a decadent political party, founded on vices of vindictiveness, divisiveness, falsehood, fake promises, electoral manipulations, support for violence, stealing, sectional marginalisation and hatred, cannot produce the desired leadership for our nation after … Buhari.
“That is why some individuals in the APC, who by their backgrounds as religious leaders, community leaders, legal luminaries, rights advocates and moralists who should be speaking out in the face of misrule, have rather have found themselves entangled in APC Bermuda Triangle of violence and corruption, where they have ignobly become apostles of falsehood, corruption, injustice as well as backers of acts of terrorism in our country.”
Ologbondiyan insisted that Nigerians will not be deceived again to entrust the destiny of the country in the hands of the APC, “which has in the last six years, superintended over the looting of over N25.1 trillion from various ministries, agencies and department of government; leading to the ruining of our once robust economy.”
He said the APC administration “has failed to prosecute APC leaders and their agents indicted in the reported disappearance of N10.1 trillion from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in March this year, the N9.6 trillion NNPC scam, the reported N1.1 trillion crude oil fraud, alleged N1.4 trillion fuel subsidy scam, the N500 billion Social Intervention fraud exposed by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, as well as massive looting in FIRS, NEMA, EFCC, NDDC, NPA, NIMASA, NHIS and other agencies of government.
“This is in addition to reports of how APC, as a party, is behind the importation of terrorist elements and emboldening of terrorist activities, arbitrary arrests and sudden disappearances of dissenting voices, sectional marginalisation, political killings, escalated abuse of human rights including the clampdown on our youths during the EndSARS protest as well as the stifling of social media in our country.
“That is why the APC has never raised a strong voice against acts of terrorism, killings, electoral violence and treasury looting.”
The PDP urged Buhari to stop wasting his time trying to launder the APC because Nigerians have moved beyond the gimmicks of the APC and “that is why they are rallying on the platform of the PDP to rescue our nation from misrule.”
