We Won’t Descend to Level of Rudderless PDP, Says  APC

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have said they will not descend to the level of ‘rudderless’ Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by engaging in insults and abuses, but rather focus on issues that are important to improving the quality of life of Nigerians.

The Director of Media & Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued  yesterday said Tinubu’s offence was that he reminded the PDP of its 16 years of cash and carry government which left the mess that the APC government has been clearing.

Tinubu had queried the moral basis for PDP’s plot to return to power eight years after leaving thousands of uncompleted projects and commitments in trillions of Naira.

He had also added that  a party still battling with leadership crisis and without a legacy of visionary planning has no place in Nigeria’s future.

Tinubu stated: “They spent 16 years and forgot that there is a railway infrastructure that can do haulage, human carriage, animal and food carriage across the length and breadth of the country.”

“They (PDP) got there and turned it to an incubator. I wonder why they still exist as a party. These are people still fighting for leadership of their party, looking for the direction of the compass. We are not equal at all; we are smarter. We know the road; let them follow.

“We are not just the ones to hurl abuses and insults at our rivals’ party. We don’t need it. We are smarter; we are brilliant; we are courageous; we are not like them.”

However, the APC presidential candidate said instead of the intensely incapacitated PDP to respond to the clear issues raised by Tinubu, the party abandoned all decorum and hurled personal abuses at him.

Tinubu said this was usually the trademark of a party that has nothing to offer the people, saying that no decent person expects PDP to do better, adding that the party and its leaders were clueless as ruling party and still rudderless in opposition.

He noted: “We have had cause in the past to state our objective in the 5-month campaign leading to the 25 February, 2023 presidential election not to trade personal insults. Our party and our presidential candidate will focus on issues that are important to improving the quality of life of Nigerians.

“The PDP has again demonstrated that it has nothing to offer to better the lives of our people just like its sordid past in government. PDP only wants to keep its floundering campaign alive by engaging in groundless muckraking.”

Tinubu stressed that PDP and its ever clueless leaders did more shameful things, by declaring falsely that the governing party was dead, when they know it was the party that they needed to beat to realise the inordinate ambition of their “”perennial candidate and perennially failed Atiku Abubakar.”

The former Governor of Lagos state said,  PDP as a party, was not satisfied with this lie as it launched a chapter from its propaganda playbook that the APC government has achieved nothing when APC administration stellar  achievements are there for even  the blind to see.

Tinubu insisted that the current APC government has many achievements to be proud of unlike the PDP that squandered and plundered Nigeria’s resources and could not even deliver a simple Second Niger bridge to the people of South East, that have always delivered votes for it since 1999.

He stressed that to the shame of PDP and eternal credit to APC, President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the bridge this year.

Tinubu said also this year, Buhari would complete the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, abandoned for 16 years by the PDP.

The presidential candidate said among its many laudable achievements, the current APC-led government has to its credit Lagos-Ibadan, Warri-Itakpe rail network and over 13, 000 kilometres of roads, including bridges at different stages of completion across the country.

According to him, this contrasted with the PDP years when in its first 10 years spent N633 billion on roads no one can see.

“The Buhari administration has completed no fewer than five airports and will take the credit for ensuring that the $17 billion Dangote refinery and petrochemical complex and the $3billion Lekki Deep Sea Port are accomplished.”

Tinubu said  Buhari can point to unprecedented investments in agriculture through the Anchor Borrowers scheme for rice, maize, cotton and others, adding that under the APC-led administration, Nigeria became the biggest producer of rice in Africa and cut down Nigeria’s rice and food import bill significantly.

He noted that the Buhari government would be eternally remembered for its unprecedented social investment programme that has reduced poverty in the land and given hope to millions of vulnerable homes.

“Do we need to remind the PDP of the  shame it wore as badge of honour every Christmas during its 16 years of  mis-governance when Nigerians were made to queue to buy petrol. This ugly spectacle at the pumps disappeared in the last seven years.”

Tinubu said while the party acknowledged the  new challenges of insecurity and the economy, they  are being confronted squarely by the Buhari administration.

He added that he was  already strategising on how to deal with the problems when he assumed leadership of the country as governing is a continuum.

Also, the ruling party said the main opposition party has proved  itself as a party afflicted with chronic myopia, lacking in vision and incapable of recognizing the imperative of elevating the common good of the country above partisan quibbles.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Felix Morka, stressed that PDP’s obsession with puerile partisanship blinds it to existential and strategic opportunities to heal old wounds, mend fences, and build bridges of national unity and harmony.

He said sadly, the PDP would rather fan the embers of hate and division.

Morka stated: “Asiwaju’s consultative visit to the former President was a strategic move for national unity and cohesion, a move worthy of commendation and emulation.

“The infantile outburst on the Asiwaju/Jonathan parley by the same PDP that claims to be on a self-styled mission to unify Nigeria only betrays the party’s extreme hypocrisy and folly.”

Morka noted that  PDP’s track record of 16 years of misrule and  corruption remained indelible in the consciousness of Nigerians. 

He said contrary to PDP’s laughable claim that the duo of Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima were distancing themselves from  Buhari’s administration, it was on record that this government deftly managed two economic recessions, and pulled the nation back from the precipice where PDP’s years of atrocious rule left it hanging precariously.

“Our party and its presidential candidate are seeking the mandate of Nigerians to consolidate on the foundation of restoration and greatness that has been laid across all sectors by the Buhari administration. The PDP and its co-peddlers of hate and disunity cannot stop this noble aspiration,” Morka noted.