MARGARET CHIDERA
ABUJA, Nigeria – The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has said the party is strengthening democratic rule in the country and not stifling it.
The party in its reactions to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Presidential candidate in the 2023 Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, that the APC is stifling democracy, said exasperated by the drooping fortunes of his PDP, the former Vice President has stated that “Nigeria was sliding into a one-party state.”
Atiku also accused the APC of “increasingly, turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party” while hosting the National Executive Council of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria, (IPAC) on Tuesday, November 14.
But National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barr Felix Morka in a statement on Wednesday said: “It is pitiful that a statesman of Atiku’s standing, would so easily conflate the wide acceptance of our great party among Nigerians with his irrational fear of one-party dictatorship.
“Perhaps, the Turakin Adamawa needs to be reminded that Nigerians are highly percipient and can differentiate between political deviance of PDP and demonstrable commitment of APC to deepening democracy and fostering our common good.
“Before its epic defeat in 2015, the PDP proclaimed and flaunted its plan to rule Nigeria for a minimum of 60 years. At that time, Atiku was willfully blind to fear of a PDP one-party dictatorship but now appears to be under the influence of a distorted vision inflicted by the debilitating serial trouncing of his party at the polls.
“The PDP’s brigandage, impunity and profligacy of 16 years remain unforgettable. In its brief period at the helm, APC has implemented far reaching reform of the Electoral Act and introduced technological innovations, including the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal, (IReV) all aimed at improving electoral transparency and deepening our democracy.
“Remarkably, Atiku and his PDP have not only consistently failed at the polls, they have proved incapable of offering a credible alternative political vision as expected of an opposition party. Instead, the PDP has sustained its free fall into the abyss of quicks and by its intractable internal contradictions and impoverished leadership.
“The PDP’s flagrant disregard for due process, another of its bane, is the reason the party fielded its National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, as governorship candidate in Imo State in the just-concluded off-season gubernatorial election.
“As candidate, Senator Anyanwu failed to resign his position as National Secretary as required by law. Is it any wonder that the Imo electorate rejected Anyanwu, who clearly did not have confidence in his own candidacy to quit his position as a party officer?
“Anyanwu’s greedy disposition has reportedly, sparked a fresh round of leadership imbroglio at the Wadata House of Commotion.”
The statement urged Atiku to concentrate on repairing his damaged political psyche and attempt to revive his comatose PDP and leave APC out of their combined predicament.
“However, we welcome the former Vice President’s charge to opposition political parties to rally together to engage in opposition politics.
“On our part, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue, undisturbed, to justify his electoral promises in the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ as he builds a safer, stronger and economically vibrant country for the benefit of all.”
