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The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has explained the reasons why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not return to power in 2019.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, in his reaction yesterday, stated figuratively that Nigerians would not return the PDP to power again in 2019 because of the fear that Nigeria might “disappear”.
Abdullahi was reacting to Senator Ahmed Makarfi’s statement that his victory at the Supreme Court meant that the PDP was ready to return to power.
“We had dismissed Makarfi’s statement as part of the excitement that follows a favourable court ruling. However, since that Wednesdayverdict, we noticed that several of his supporters and party members have expressed similar sentiment. We therefore feel the need to respond appropriately.
“In recent past, the PDP brand of opposition politics had been characterized mainly allegation mongering and open incitements of separatist agitations across the country. It appears however that the outcome of Wednesday ruling is beginning to set them on a different course. We are therefore delighted that the PDP is beginning to talk about holding the APC accountable for the promises in our manifesto.
“We want Nigerians, not just the PDP, to hold us accountable for every promise contained in our manifesto. We only urge them to be fair. A manifesto is not a four-year programme. If PDP had fully implemented its manifesto in the 16 years that it was in power, Nigerians would not have been attracted to the APC promise of change in 2015, because there would have been little left to promise,” the APC spokesman said in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja.
The APC stated that the problem with the PDP as it is currently constituted is that only a few people left in the party whose faces do not represent the face of corruption.
He also reacted to a media report which quoted an unnamed former minister as comparing the PDP and the APC to a tale of two wives, saying that Nigerians have tried the two and had seen who was better.
He said, “We find this metaphor quite interesting. We need to point out however that APC is the new wife that is busy working at the kitchen that has been looted empty the former wife who had made away with the entire foodstuff and even the kitchen utensils. Nigerians know this. If the food is a little late in coming, they understand the circumstance. “But if that other thieving wife now begins to argue that she was a better cook and should be brought back into the kitchen because the new wife is a slow cook, then that should pass for hypocrisy. No matter the temporary hardship that we may be experiencing, Nigerians know better than to bring PDP back to power so soon for fear that this time, they might disappear with the kitchen itself.”
The APC also upbraided the PDP for allegedly mocking President Muhammadu Buhari with his health situation.
“We have seen in the last few days, some members of the PDP who have boasted to defeat President Buhari in 2019. We urge Nigerians to Google the names of these individuals and see what comes up. It is however understandable, even if not acceptable, that when the lion is enfeebled, even a rabbit would grow the temerity to tweak its tail,” the statement further read.
The statement urged Nigerians to remain resolute in support of the APC and President Buhari, voicing the party’s belief that the current difficulty “is only a passing phase.”