The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the recent verbal attack by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance in office as a vindication of its position on Mr. Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The party, which has criticised both the president and his party consistently in recent months, said this on Tuesday in a statement issued by its national publicity Secretary, Kola Ologibodiyan.
Mr. Obasanjo had in a statement on Tuesday called on President Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019 as he was not only incompetent but had failed to deliver on campaign promises.
Mr. Obasanjo, a two-term president who served on the platform of the PDP, said both the PDP and the APC did not possess the needed quality to meet the expectations of Nigerians.
He called for a movement termed “Coalition of Nigeria’, which he offered to be a part of, to wrest power from the present ruling class and, ” lead the country into the path of rebirth.”
According to the PDP, which recently resolved years of internal crises, Mr. Obasanjo’s counsel has rekindled the fate of the people in the democratic process.
It however said the solution as proffered by Mr. Obasanjo does not lie in creating “another political quicksand in a third force but consolidating on a rescue mission with the repositioned PDP which Nigerians have already embraced.”
“Nigerians would recall that in the heat of 2015 elections, many citizens, who claimed to have become tired of the PDP and its government, opted for a coalition of strange bedfellows who had little or no experience in governance as a vehicle for electoral victory. Expectedly, in their confusion, they have plunged us into this regrettable situation that has brought our nation to its knees.
“Repeating the old mistake of congregating political strangers cannot help our nation at this time, more so, when the few concerns raised by the former President about the PDP no longer obtain under the refocused and rebranded PDP.
“The PDP is now standing on a truly democratic ground that perfectly represents and reflects the hopes and aspirations of all Nigerians irrespective of their class, creed or tribe.
“That is why our great party has now, more than ever before, become a center of the new patriotic and broad-based engagements by well-meaning Nigerians and coalitions across board, including past leaders, in rekindling our democratic process that places priority on returning power to the people.”
It also joined Mr. Obasanjo to flay the president and the quality of political gladiators strutting the space.
“The fact is that Nigerians overrated President Buhari in 2015 but they have now seen that he never possessed the capacity and the required aptitude to effectively govern our great nation and pilot a healthy economy.
“This accounts for the reason former President Obasanjo, just like most Nigerians today, are concerned about the quality of presidential candidates to be presented by various parties for the 2019 election.
“The fact is that while the APC is already caught up with President Buhari, the PDP is open for a new engagement that will throw up the President, which our nation truly deserves at this crucial moment.”
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