Following the glee of defection of elite members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the latter has accused the former of pushing the country into a one-party state.
APC said the PDP has “woefully failed” in providing a robust and effective opposition as required in democracy and progressive politics.
The governing party frowned at the development and argued that democracy and progressive politics require a formidable opposition that will engage the policies and programmes of the ruling party into intelligent interrogation that will enhance good governance.
APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, while advancing why the PDP political fortune is nose diving, the ruling party challenged other opposition political parties to fill the gap being created by the inaction of the PDP.
The statement reads: “It is disheartening that the PDP is pushing Nigeria into a largely one-party state. As a party that believes in democracy and progressive politics, the APC does not subscribe to this. We therefore challenge other opposition political parties to take the place of the PDP because even as the governing party, we recognize the importance of rigorous and intelligent interrogation of our policies and programmes by the opposition which the PDP has woefully failed to do.”
Nabena noted that it was not surprising that progressive-minded members of the PDP have been defecting en-masse from the opposition party to the ruling party in recent times due to its inability to live to its billing.
“For a party unable to run its Secretariat, pay staff salaries and its leadership grappling with a crisis of confidence, it will be unfair to expect its progressive-minded members to remain in the PDP which has failed woefully as the supposed ‘main’ opposition party in Nigeria.”
It will be recalled that Governor of Ebonyi State, David Nweze Umahi and Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Elisha Abbo recently defected to the ruling party. This was in addition to earlier return of many prominent Party members and leaders including, former PDP national chairman, Senator Barnabas Gemade; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Dr. Alex Otti among others.
Nabena noted that “as a party, the APC welcomes new and returning entrants who have come to work with the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration to improve the lives of Nigerians and overall better our dear country.”
The statement further noted that “party ranks greatly and appreciate the important work the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) under the Chairmanship of Governor Mai Mala Buni is doing to reposition the party by accommodating all interests and ensuring peace, unity, fairness, equity, justice and inclusion and internal democracy in our great party.
“The Governor Buni-led CECPC is working assiduously and has achieved great success in ensuring that the Party is repositioned, united, and conducts the planned membership registration, update and revalidation exercise to produce a clean, credible and authentic national membership register ahead of the planned National Convention.
“For now, the PDP and Alh. Atiku Abubakar who begun early 2023 campaign on the PDP’s presidential candidature he is poised to purchase, are engrossed with their Dubai meetings to plot their hallucinatory return to ensure their bid to selloff the remainder of our national assets. Nigerians are wiser,” Nabena concluded.
