The Peoples Democratic Party has punctured an attempt by the All Progressives Congress APC to dismiss its complicity in the rising wave of insurgency and its concomitant adverse effects on national governance by drawing an incongruent comparison between a democratically elected presidency with proven fidelity to democratic tenets and defunct military dictatorships.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, on Thursday said the unfortunate comparison by the APC was a tacit acknowledgment that this opposition party was planning to take Nigeria back to dictatorship.
“The APC has never left the nation in doubt of its preference. It wants a return to barefaced tyranny , to dictatorship as previously unleashed on the nation by a hue in its top leadership. But Nigerians have handed the party a shocker – we have crossed the red sea and shall never go back to Egypt.”
The ruling party said it was a preposterous distortion of facts and history to compare the Jonathan presidency to either Gen. Gowon’s or Gen. Abacha’s even though the three of them come from the minority ethnic group because the two former Heads of State were unelected and operated a purely undiluted military dictatorship that brooked no opposition.
It argued that under the current administration of President Jonathan, the wheel of democracy together with its immense benefits has turned full circle, giving Nigerians all liberties, an opportunity that the opposition has unfortunately applied so indecently to hurl all manner of abuses on the president.
Restating that the plan of the APC is to destabilize the government and balkanise Nigeria, the PDP insisted that the party had planned to use insurgency which ranks high in its Janjaweed ideology to overthrow a democratically elected government of President Jonathan but has been put under an effective check.
It further alerted the nation that the plan B of the APC is to use the same insurgency to unleash unprecedented mayhem when it loses the 2015 general election and forcefully take over power, saying that the PDP has evidence of meetings held outside the shores of the country in pursuit of this ignoble objective. It added that the APC has been confused and disorganized since its connection with insurgency as part of its janjaweed ideology in the country was exposed.
The party further argued that though it was common knowledge that insurgency in the north predated the present administration, it was not a mere coincident that these mindless attacks gain ricocheting tempo each time the President moves notches higher in his transformation programme. This clearly betrays the shameful efforts by those in the masks and their sponsors to frustrate the efforts of government.
“In spite of this well planned distraction, the steady delivery of the transformation programme goes on. It is incontrovertible that pound for pound, no previous administration compares to President Jonathan in quality delivery within the first three years of governance.
“Therefore, each time the APC barks ” incompetence ” like a rabid dog or hoots “clueless” like a devouring night owl, the PDP and well meaning Nigerians know that the opposition party whose agenda of destabilization has been exposed and unhorsed is licking its wounds.”
“We wish to again challenge the APC to a public debate on the leadership and successes of President Jonathan and we verily hope it will this time pick up this challenge that any opposition worth its name would clinch with two hands,” the PDP said.
