- PDP: Buhari violating tenets of democracy
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as falsehood the recent allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that it had launched a clampdown on key opposition figures in the build up to the 2019 general elections. It also denied that the ruling party had become a bastion of corruption and sectionalism.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said President Muhammadu Buhari, since his assumption of office in 2015, has violated all tenets of democracy and trampled on citizens’ rights.
National Publicity Secretary of APC, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement yesterday, said that he was baffled by PDP’s “new found proclivity for constantly spewing falsehood in the name of opposition rhetoric and politics.” National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, had, at a news conference, accused President Muhammadu Buhari and APC of hounding members of the opposition in order to cripple them before the forthcoming elections.
However, Abdullahi said that on the contrary, suppression of the opposition was the stock in trade of PDP during its 16-year rule in the country. “APC has definitely not inherited this undemocratic practice in its governance style, both in its internal politics and the country’s administration under President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Nigerians will recall how PDP administrations illegally and routinely used state apparatus to harass opposition figures as seen in the attack on APC data centre, blockade of the air and road routes to prevent movement of then opposition leaders in the build up to the 2015 elections, among other clampdowns that are too numerous to list.
“PDP is quick to forget the divisive, insensitive and sectional politics it played during the 2015 electioneering campaign when its women’s wing, led by a former first lady, denigrated the country’s north as parasitic and unwilling to educate and cater for its young populace.
“In fact, the PDP-led administration at the time pointedly regarded the Boko Haram insurgency as a northern affair,” he said. APC said that it was laughable that PDP accused the APC-led administration of “barefaced looting” and conspiracies of suppression without any iota of proof. According to him, these allegations, coming in the build up to the election, were designed to divert public attention from the “wanton culture of impunity and corruption,” which, according to him, PDP instituted when it held sway.
“Elections are around the corner and Nigerians are not gullible. They see through PDP’s diversionary antics aimed at deflecting attention from the wanton culture of impunity and corruption it instituted when it held sway. “Do we forget PDP administration’s unwillingness to operate the now implemented Treasury Single Account (TSA), which has greatly plugged government revenue leakages? Do we forget the voodoo economics, reckless fiscal policies and shocking pillage of the public treasury perpetuated during the PDP administrations?
Do we forget confessions by the immediate-past finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy, reporting “zero political will to save” under the immediate-past administration? “Do we forget the $2.2 billion anti-insurgency funds fraudulently diverted and disbursed by the erstwhile National Security Adviser to political associates of the immediate past president and PDP members, while our military personnel on the frontlines were illequipped and demoralised, resulting in many avoidable deaths and the maiming of our gallant men in uniform? “For one, Nigerians generally agree that the era of impunity is beginning to disappear from our national life.
There is a gradual acceptance of the best practice and time-honoured values of honesty, hard work, patriotism, accountability, integrity and abhorrence of corruption, in our everyday life. “PDP’s narrative is anchored on the belief that if they continue to throw these wild allegations around, somehow Nigerians will forget what they truly represent and the atrocities that they have committed against the country. Alas, Nigerians are wiser now and our memories are longer.
We can forgive, but we will not forget,” he said. The ruling party blamed the state of the nation on PDP’s misrule, adding that clearing the mess has been the pre-occupation of the current administration, driven by its change mantra.
He said it was unfortunate that PDP had chosen to dwell on imaginary persecution while wilfully the efforts being made to literally clear the mess they created and build a new Nigeria in line with the Change Agenda, which APC promised the electorate.
Meanwhile, PDP has advised the president not to bother to address Nigerians on this year’s Democracy Day as such addresses would contain deceits, falsifications and unfulfilled promises. PDP, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Ologbondiyan, observed that Nigerians are increasingly becoming frustrated and despondent by the magnitude of lies and deception by the APC-led Federal Government in the last three years.
“Indeed, this administration should not come close to the emblem of democracy, as such would be an unpardonable spat on the faces of millions of suppressed Nigerians and the graves of victims of extra-judicial executions under this administration, as catalogued by international bodies, including Transparency International (TI), Amnesty International (AI) and even the United States Department of State,” the party said.
It noted that instead of celebrating democracy, Nigerians are today groaning in regret for electing an administration that has completely turned against them. The party accused the APC-led Federal Government of clampdown on its critics, setting aside constitutional provisions and desecrating democratic established institutions.
“We ask: How can Nigerians celebrate Democracy Day when the rights of citizens are daily trampled and they no longer enjoy their freedom to politically associate and aspire, as was the order under the PDP rule? “Where is democracy when government tends towards military fiat: where citizens are wantonly arrested, locked up and dehumanized just for expressing political opinions considered to be at variance with views held by those in power?
“Where is democracy when opposition members have become endangered species and considered enemies of the state without any just cause; where dissenting voices are daily harassed, arrested, handcuffed and arraigned on trumped-up charges, just to emasculate opposition?
“Where is democracy when our National Assembly, the very bastion of our democracy, is under siege; where federal lawmakers are daily blackmailed, hounded, harassed, intimidated, detained and dehumanized; where strange elements invade the hallowed chambers of the Senate, threatened our senators and forcefully cart away the mace, yet nobody has been prosecuted?
“Where is democracy when court judges are arrested in the middle of the night by agents of state; top government officials engage in actions and speeches that promote division, hatred and bloodletting; when journalists and media houses are being harassed and intimidated and our nation, in the last three years, ranking among the most hostile to free press?” PDP asked.
.new telegraph
