Here are 10 reasons articulated to prove with a definite
certainty that should the PDP sustain its current unifying momentum, it will
succeed in changing the dubious change imposed by the APC on Nigerians that has
left them in worse conditions than they were over 30 years ago.
Rather than bettered,
the economy inherited by the APC from the PDP, reputed for being Africa’s
primus sine paribus at the time of transition, has been so severely battered by
poor economic decisions that it has become an issue of amazement, how change
can so rapidly extinguish productivity and reverse progress in just a space of
a year.
Today, job loses have become commonplace as both the private
and public sector grapple with sustaining their enterprise. Companies continue
to close shops, the Naira is at its worst ever value in history, prices of
commodities blaze on consistently in their astronomic adventure and the mass of
Nigerians, the very people for whom government cannot afford to fail, are left
to grope in the wilderness of misfortune in credit to the inability of the APC
led Federal Government to direct the ship of state on a steady course to
progress. It is such a messy situation.
Although the APC continues to blame the PDP for being
responsible for its inability to deliver on its much touted campaign promises
of change, no proof has so far been established, in a year of APC’s helm at the
thrust of governance, of PDP’s culpability in undermining APC’s success either
directly or otherwise, leaving many with the disappointing conclusion that the
APC was never primed for governance; a fact enunciated in its new christening
by Nigerians as ‘APC: ALL PROMISES CANCELLED’ as the promise of change has
become change of promise, without apologies.
2.
CORRUPTION :
Hopes have been dashed, especially in the international
community, since the APC took to power and formed its cabinet. The greatest
mockery of its strong anti-corruption campaign was the inclusion of clearly
compromised and indicted members of the public in its government. Some of those
included were former Governors, of whom credible reports in the public domain
appear to show as having bankrolled the presidential election of incumbent
President Buhari with misappropriated public funds.
For many, that was the most remarkable betrayal of the trust
reposed in the APC led government and also the most significant move to excuse,
promote and reward corruption, thus undermining, or at best limiting, the fight
against corruption to perceived detractors of the APC, most of whom are
innocent PDP members dreaded for their political sagacity.
To this day, not a single investigation has commenced on any
of the litany of petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) leading to public outcry and the condemnation of the Commission as being
biased, partisan and vindictive. The corruption of public morals, by promoting
propaganda over truth and reality, cannot also be wished away as an
inconsequential factor in sustaining corruption in Nigeria. In spite of the
hopes in the APC to sustain the gains by the PDP in deploying institutional
measures to tackle corruption, no far-reaching achievement has been attained.
In fact, the perception of corruption in Nigeria has become so monumental that
the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, David Cameron, opined that Nigeria is
fantastically corrupt. And Our President agreed.
3. APARTHEID POLICY :
One of the extreme measures adopted as a
policy of the APC is to run government on the basis of exclusionism. For the
first time in Nigeria’s history, Nigerians are being segregated against by
their own President on the grounds of who voted and didn’t vote for him. The
first indication of this policy was made in the full glare of the international
community during the President’s maiden visit to the United States of America
after being elected. Jaws dropped. Tempers flared. Passions were inflamed and
trust got betrayed in that single moment he made the statement excluding sections
of Nigeria that didn’t vote for him from benefiting from his government. But it
wasn’t a gaffe. It was a stoic and bland indication, although an unintended
revelation, of what was to be elevated to officialdom and directive principle
of state policy.
Nigeria, sadly, has
now deviated from the legacy of the PDP in building cohesion among the diverse
peoples within it to become a ‘we-versus-them’, North-versus-South contraption
of ethnic-conscious nationalities. APC’s approach to governance clearly
sustains the policy of exclusionism and apartheid. In fact, justifications have
been made regarding the slant in appointments in favour of the North against
the South, a region that has consistently come under attack by Federal
institutions.
For instance, the 2015 General Elections in Rivers State and
across critical States in the South were not only widely regarded as unduly
annulled by the Court of Appeal, the court-ordered rerun elections suffered
more attack by the military and would have been compromised but for the
resilience of Rivers people. The same strategic crackdown effort played out at
the elections in Bayelsa State and across the South, where the EFCC is still
being used to harass and victimise
innocent PDP members.
The South Eastern States appear the worst hit by the
apartheid policy of the APC. The Igbos complain of being alienated from
mainstream governance. A situation that has led to renewed and intensified
agitations for self-determination by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
4. ESCALATING ETHNOCENTRIC AND EXPANSIONIST TERRORISM :
Until
recently, Nigerians didn’t know and would never have believed that by voting
for the APC, they would be faced with even more daring terrorism than was
witnessed and effectively tackled during the Jonathan years, in spite of the
promise by APC to end terrorism within its first month in government.
Today, the ethnocentric plague known as Fulani Herdsmen, is
ravaging the breadth of the geographical enclave called Nigeria especially
Christian dominated sections of the South. Scores have been killed. Many more
have lost valuable property by the ravaging fundamentalist scourge. Even a
national figure, Chief Olu Falae, was reportedly kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen
and to this day, no emphatic measure has been taken to curb the escalating
tensions generated by the dastardly activities of the herdsmen.
Insinuations are rife that the terrifying vocation of the
herdsmen is beyond being about pastoral preoccupation but part of a grand
expansionist plot by Northern fundamentalists to spread their hold on Nigeria
to the Atlantic Ocean. Whether the insinuations are right or not remain a thing
to be established. But the inability of the APC to unite Nigerians and curb the
incursions of the herdsmen on the civil liberties of Nigerians appears to
energise the assault on innocent Nigerian citizens, a development that wouldn’t
have seen the light of day had the PDP being in power.
It is on record that all Nigerians regardless of faith,
creed or origin united under one umbrella in the PDP. Those good days have to
return.
5. IMPUNITY:
In today’s Nigeria, all that a criminal or an
economic saboteur needs to get off the latch of the law is to establish both
his membership of the APC and his connection to a Party bigwig. At the height
of PDP’s acclaimed transgressions, nothing like this would have been conceived.
But with change came daring bites on values. So much so that the Inspector
General of Police will boldly take a stand against the prosecution of a
criminal. Never has it been so heard.
Never!
APC members appear to be above the law in Nigeria today.
They are as much untouchables as they are liabilities for national development.
Thus, creating a crisis for themselves and the need to change the change they
brought.
6. COMPROMISED INSTITUTIONS :
It is now common knowledge that
State institutions have been compromised in Nigeria under the APC. From the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) to even the Directorate of State Security (DSS), it’s
been a blaze of compromised values.
INEC now conducts Elections that are for the first time in
the history of the country regarded as inconclusive simply because they are or
would have been won by the PDP. The EFCC is so afflicted with degenerated myopia
that it only sees perceived threats to the APC as being culpable for crimes it
is unable to establish and for which the accused are victimised with their
rights infringed and without apologies. The DSS, the Geheime Staatspolizei of
the change era, only barks at and bites PDP members and but for the existence
of the Supreme Court that refused to be compromised, the judiciary would have
been crippled under the leadership of the APC led government. All these
happening under a government and political party that promised change.
To make matters worse, the APC chooses what court orders to
obey and which to frustrate or disregard; a major deviation from the gains of
the PDP that had established the rule of law as an intrinsic part of
governance.
. DEARTH IN GOVERNMENTAL CAPACITY :
APC has achieved nothing
inspiring or substantial in a year because it lacks the capacity to do so. It
has no plan to develop Nigeria and has clearly shown a lack of capacity in that
regard beyond thriving in partisanship. There’s no gainsaying the fact and it
has to be left as simple as it is.
8. QUESTIONABLE MANDATE :
It is still being doubted if the APC
truly obtained its acclaimed mandate by securing a majority vote in the 2015
General Elections or by cutting corners and blackmailing the members of the PDP
especially of Northern origin to submission. For instance, consider the
controversy that surrounded the death of Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi, the Kano
State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in a fire incident in his home
along with his wife and two children a day after Kano delivered the largest
number of votes to the APC with just an infinitesimal number of voided votes.
The Police is yet to make public its findings from the investigation of the
Kano REC’s death.
Almost a year later, whether by criminal conspiracy or
karma, Youths in Kano have set ablaze the residences of serving members of the
National Assembly over unfulfilled campaign promises raising suspicions about
the credibility of APC’s acclaimed popularity.
Besides the above, the vast majority of Nigerians especially
those who were caught unawares by the change mantra and APC propaganda feel
misled and raped. Most of them do not need to be courted by the PDP. They have
made up their mind to change the vicious change of the APC.
9. GLOBAL DISTRUST :
The inability of the APC to match words
with action and deliver on campaign promises did not only pitch it against
Nigerians who feel betrayed but also resulted in global distrust for the Party
and government. To this day, no concrete achievement has resulted from the
frequent international visits and no one hears about the then popular and
controversial shopping list of the APC. There is an apparent reluctance by the
global community to commit to the APC led government and it is not for nothing.
There is a complete lack of confidence in the Party.
10. RISK OF NIGERIA’S DISINTEGRATION :
The emergence and
approach to governance of the APC-led government has further divided Nigerians
without any concerted or deliberate move to build national cohesion. Every
region in the country is faced with either agitations for self-determination or
monumental terrorism. The gaping holes of disunity are expanding daily and no
strategic measure is being taken to address the issue. Most recently,
militancy, which was hitherto curbed by the PDP, has again reared its head with
blows to the nation’s fortune.
From all indications, the APC has lost the plot and only PDP
holds the ace to save the country from being decimated. It is for this reasons
and many more that Nigerians will surely entrust the country back to the hands
of the PDP, which history shows has a mastery for having things flow in
society.
PDP is coming back except it fails to unite. It would be
most unfortunate for it to miss this opportunity to bounce back. The PDP has
everything going for it right now. It must seize this moment to return Nigeria
to the path of true prosperity. Nothing else would serve the nation’s interest
best.
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