PDP is Nigeria’s problem, opposition parties tell Jonathan
Three
leading opposition parties on Thursday faulted President Goodluck
Jonathan’s claim that democracy would have collapsed in the country
without the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party, the
Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change said
contrary to Jonathan’s claim, the PDP was the problem of democracy in
the country.
The President, had at the PDP 60th
National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Tuesday said, “People,
who want to drown us know that without the PDP, probably, the Republic
would have collapsed.”
Responding to the claim, the ANPP said the President was not saying the truth.
Rather, it said the PDP had destroyed democracy in the country.
Speaking in a telephone interview with
one of our correspondents, the National Publicity Secretary of the
party, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said it was Nigerians who had been keeping
vigil not to
enable the PDP to destroy the nation’s democracy.
He said the PDP-led Federal Government
had hijacked the Independent National Electoral Commission and therefore
could boast that without the ruling party, democracy would become a
thing of the past in the country.
He said, “The President was saying the opposite. He was not sincere with his comments.
“He knows that his political party is
the problem of Nigeria and also aware that Nigerians now reject it and
its candidates during elections.”
The ACN National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement, said the PDP was suffering from
“delusion of grandeur.”
He said the PDP was the main problem
hindering the growth of democracy in Nigeria because of its
anti-democratic “antics, election manipulation tendencies and lack of
respect for the rule of law.”
Mohammed said, “Mr. President, the
reason Nigeria’s democracy has survived thus far is not the robustness
of the PDP, as you have said, but the determination and courage of the
good people of Nigeria, who have resolved to say ‘never again’ to
anti-democratic forces, as well as the robust opposition mounted by a
few progressive forces.
“Were it left for the PDP, this democracy as we know it, would have become history.”
The National Chairman, of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande, described Jonathan’s claim as a fraudulent joke.
Akande said it was evident that the opposition in the country had better knowledge of the governance than the PDP.
Speaking through his media aide, Mr.
Lani Baderinwa, Akande said large scale insecurity, poverty, corruption
and inefficient administration had become the hallmark of the PDP
governance.
Also, the National Publicity Secretary
of the Congress for Progressive Change, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, in a
telephone interview with one of our correspondents, said the PDP was
cause of tension in the country.
He stated, “The PDP’s devious politics is the cause of the stress and threat to the nation’s democracy.
“Can you imagine that a party that ruled
Edo State for 10 years without tarring one kilometre of road was
expecting to use the usual ‘brutal’ force to hijack victory from a
governor that had done more in four years than all its years of
governance of the state?”
The Convener of Coalition of Northern
Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid
Mohammed, also faulted the President.
Mohammed, who is also the National
Chairman of Peoples Salvation Party said, “We have people who know next
to nothing about governance in power.
“If you fail to recognise the contribution of these groups, then you are not practising democracy.
“Anybody or any party who tries to even
pretend that it can go it alone in governing a country of this
complexity will lead us to very serious national crisis.”
