Don’t compare us with APC to achieve political relevance, PDP replies Jega

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega, to avoid employing manipulative strategies by comparing it with the All Progressives Congress (APC) just to gain political relevance ahead of the 2023 General Elections.

The PDP issued the warning sequel to Jega’s call on Nigerians to distance themselves from the ruling party and the main opposition party, describing them as failures, and the cause of Nigeria’s challenges.

He emphasised that both parties have failed the country.

But in a statement issued by PDP on Monday, by National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party noted that comparing “the incompetent and decadent APC to the highly productive and development-oriented PDP is an unpardonable disservice to our nation and calls to question the sense of judgment of Profession Jega.”

The PDP stated that it was disturbing that Prof. Jega, who recently and rightly, described the APC and the Buhari administration as a failure, “is now attempting an image laundering with such a warped comparison, just a few weeks after he was offered a juicy appointment as Chairman of Governing Council of University of Jos by President Buhari.”

The party further stated: “It is indeed unfortunate that Prof. Jega, as a professor of political science, could portray an ignorance of the manifest contrasts between the robust fortunes of our nation under the PDP and the wasteland she has become under the APC.

“Perhaps the Professor needs to be reminded of how the PDP worked hard to revamp our nation’s economy, paid off our huge foreign debts and went ahead to grow the economy to become the largest investment hub in Africa as well as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with Fitch B+ rating; only for the APC to wreck the economy and turned our nation into the world poverty capital and a debtor country in a space of six years.

“Prof. Jega must also be reminded how the PDP reinvigorated the private sector with new businesses and employments springing up in critical sectors of telecoms, aviation, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, education, retailing, hospitality, healthcare and banking among others.

“Today, under the APC and Buhari, these gains have been wrecked with massive closure of businesses, which saw over 60 million Nigerians losing their means of livelihood, with alarming 33.3 per cent unemployment rate and over 82.9 million more and about 25 million families not being able to afford their daily meals as our country ranks 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, due to the obnoxious policies of the APC and President Buhari.

“Perhaps the former INEC chairman has forgotten how the PDP stabilized our fiscal economy and handed over our naira to the APC at N160 to a dollar only for the APC to wreck our currency to a dismal N510 to a dollar.

Read also: ‘Don’t compare us with failed PDP,’ APC tells Jega

“He may have also forgotten how the PDP handed over the cost of fuel at N87 per litre and how the APC has hiked it to N165 per litre with attendant pressure on our economy.”

The PDP, however, asked Professor Jega to note “how the PDP ran an all-inclusive and transparent administration that guaranteed freedom of speech, equity, fairness as well as free and fair elections, which he attested to; and how the APC, had been running a massively corrupt, insensitive, divisive and exclusionist administration that has destroyed our national cohesion and turned our nation into a battlefield.”

“As a professor of political science, Prof. Jega ought to know that while the PDP is an ideologically based political party, the APC is just a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) operated on the basis of deception and that is why it has failed in all ramification and now fizzled in the eyes of the law.

“Nigerians are already confronting the fact of the failures of the APC as well as President Buhari and would therefore not require a manipulative tendency of any individual seeking political relevance ahead of 2023.

“After all, the roles which Prof Jega played in bringing this failed party and administration into office are still fresh in the hearts of Nigerians,” PDP concluded.

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