THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the statement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo calling on President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek a second term, saying that the position is a vindication of what the PDP had stood for all along.
However, the leading opposition party rejected the call by Obasanjo for a third force saying that such would amount to repeating the same blunder that brought in the “ideologically vacuous APC and the Buhari Presidency which has now wreaked havoc on the nation in its almost three years of governance.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday in response to that of Obasanjo described the counsel by former Obasanjo to Buhari as “courageous, timeous and patriotic,” adding that such has vindicated its position on President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It said the fact that President Buhari and the APC have “irredeemably failed our nation is obvious to all,” adding that Nigerians have already taken an irrevocable position against them ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to the PDP, Chief Obasanjo’s counsel has rekindled the fate of the people in the democratic process, stressing however that the solution 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.
It said 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.
PDP maintained that 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.
It added: “That is why our great party has now, more than ever before, become a centre of the new patriotic and broad-based engagements by well-meaning Nigerians and coalitions across the board, including past leaders, in rekindling our democratic process that places priority on returning power to the people.
“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.”
“We, therefore, call on Nigerians, including all our leaders across the board, to come together to rebuild our nation on PDP’s consolidated base rather than traversing on another learning curve.”
