Anyim blames PDP defectors to APC for Nigeria’s challenges

Former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, on Friday blamed politicians who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2014 for the country’s current socio-economic challenges.

Anyim, who stated this at a consultative meeting with PDP leaders across the six geo-political zones of the country in Abuja, insisted that politicians who dumped the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC) that year deceived Nigerians.

Several politicians including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Senate President, Bukola Saraki, former River State governor, Rotimi Amaechi and his Kano State counterpart, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, among others walked out of the party’s national convention in 2014 and later joined the APC.

Anyim, who is a presidential aspirant in the 2023 election, warned members of the party not to repeat the same mistake, saying the action of the defectors culminated in the present hardship in the country.

He promised to return the country on the path of growth and prosperity if he is elected the President in 2023.

He said: “In 2014, some of us in PDP, simply decided to pull out of PDP and brought that government down. We were plunged into darkness and that is why we are here.

“Let nobody confuse you. Let nobody mislead you. We were confused and misled in 2015. And that is why we are here. We now have an opportunity to come together and reinvent ourselves.

“Do you agree with me that Nigerians are saying please return us to 2015? If Nigerians are begging us to return them to 2015, do you have any reason not to support me?

READ ALSO: Nigeria better off before Buhari’s administration —Anyim

“We were planning that for the second tenure of President Jonathan. We will stretch out these plans and policies to actually deliver maximum results. Unfortunately, that administration was truncated.

“If you stand by me, if you partner with me, we will return this country, again on the path of peace, growth and prosperity.

“I want to say that in returning Nigeria on the part of growth, we have to sharpen a new foundation or at least the return to where we stopped in 2015.

“I want to say that the crises of our nation today, the challenge of our time today demand a unifier. It demands a crisis manager. It demands a stabilizer and these are all that I am known for.

“I will build consensus across the board. I will make sure I secure the buy-in of every component of our polity before I deploy any policy that will help us move forward.”

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