CHIBUZO UKAIBE puts the recent brickbat between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in context of the internal crisis rocking both parties
For the first time in a long time the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and a faction of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) traded blame over the state of affairs in the country.
At the core of the exchange between both parties was the age-long blame game over the deplorable state of the economy and the hardship in the land. Both parties had much earlier in this administration traded accusations over why the economy was crashing.
The Sen Ahmed Makarfi-led PDP had thrown the first jab when it lampooned the ruling party over the state of the economy, as a reminder to APC’s unprecedentedly presidential election victory two years ago.
The opposition party further asked Nigerians to compare the achievements of APC to theirs at the exact same time the immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan, held sway.
According to spokesman of Makarfi’s camp, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, “This is to remind the general public that yesterday, Tuesday March 28, 2017 was exactly 2 years that Nigerians were deceived and lied to by the All Progressive Congress (APC) to vote for its Candidate, Muhammadu Buhari in the Presidential Election for ‘Change’. The Event of March 28, 2015 has indeed left a scare in the lives of Nigerians. Very sad!
“Two years after, Nigeria is worse off than the APC met her in 2015. Our economy hibernated; the institutions are bastardized and reduced to personal estates of some officials in government; prices of most basic commodities sky rocketed beyond 200%; electricity is scarce and no concrete plans to improve on the structures left behind by the PDP administrations; insecurity is on the rise though with constant grandstanding that it has “technically defeated boko haram”; unbearable and confusing high foreign exchange market; increase in petroleum products against static income; INEC acting as one of the departments of the APC; constant misuse of most security agencies against citizens; the dilemma of herdsmen attacks and daily displacements of communities unhindered; lack of transparency and accountability in government business; harassments of high ranking judicial officers, etc.
“The list indeed is endless! Nigerians are witnessing the most cruel, insensitive and clueless government in the history of this Country. It is obvious that the promise of ‘Change’ by the APC before 2015 elections was misunderstood by Nigerians. We believe that the electorates who voted the APC on this fateful day misunderstood its ‘Change’ promise to mean positive change but unknowingly, the APC actually promised negative ‘Change’. No doubt, it’s a reversal of all the achievement of the PDP administrations, and the squandering of our collective destinies through pursuit of shadows. Disastrous!
“For the record, Nigerians have been scammed and we want to use this opportunity once again to remind Nigerians of the Mid-Term Report of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, in May 2013 to compare the two years of this APC led Government since May 29, 2015.
“Finally, we wish to commiserate with all the families of those that the APC’s induced hardship and challenges led their loved ones to commit suicide in the last couple of weeks. May their souls rest in peace. As a Party, we believe in prosperity for all, good governance and the well-being of all citizens of this great Country, Nigeria.”
Expectedly the APC came blazing. The governing party while lambasting the PDP, said while Nigerians may have forgiven the damage done by the former ruling party over the years, they have not forgotten, a clear reference to 2019.
The national publicity secretary of the APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said “As a Party that was formerly in the opposition, the APC is aware of the role a thriving opposition can play in sustaining democracy. However, it appears that the marginal group that Adeyeye belongs believe that it is only by attacking the APC that it can find its relevance or gain the upper hand in the PDP’s internecine war. We need to remind Adeyeye’s group however that although Nigerians may have forgiven the PDP, two years after the Party left the country in ruins, but we have not forgotten.
“Nigerians have not forgotten that it was under the PDP-led administration that the terrorist group, Boko Haram seized a sizable portion of Nigeria’s territory, created a Caliphate and hoisted its own flags. It took the APC-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari to reclaim our territory and pride. Today, Boko Haram insurgents are virtually defeated and are on the run, and no millimetre of Nigerian territory is currently held by the insurgents. We have forgiven, but we have not forgotten.
“Under the PDP, a Party that does not consider corruption to be stealing, corruption enjoyed an unprecedented prosperity. Nigeria recorded some of the most unimaginable, shocking and astounding cases of corruption ever experienced in our history, or in the history of any country. Funds meant for the procurement of arms and ammunition required to fight the Boko Haram insurgency were stolen by agents of government and shared among themselves. It was a classic case of kleptocracy.
“The PDP-led administration was sending soldiers to battle without weapons and sharing the money. Worse still, when soldiers protested the lack of weaponry, the PDP-led administration added wickedness to weakness and court-martialled them, sentencing some of them to death, and others to long terms of imprisonment. If Nigerians have graciousness to forgive the PDP for the wanton corruption, we will not forget.
“Nigerians also remember that it was under the nose and watchful eyes of the PDP that over 250 Nigerian girls were abducted. It took the Party more than a month to even make a statement! PDP went about bandying conspiracy theories while innocent Nigerian girls were being held in captivity.
“Again, it took the APC-led administration to rescue some of the girls, while efforts are ongoing to free the rest. Yet, PDP had the audacity to counter the globally acclaimed hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls with their terribly insensitive #BringBackJonathan. We are willing to forgive even this; but we cannot forget.
“Nigerians will not forget that under the PDP, over 20 Nigerian youths died and thousands were seriously injured while looking for jobs. the PDP-led administration organised a fraudulent Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise and lured young people desperate for jobs to various stadiums across the country after extorting them. In the end, the exercise ended in tears, sorrows and blood. None of those who survived got the job and, worse still; the officials responsible for the calamity were protected by the PDP. We cannot forget.
“Nigerians remember that under the PDP, whistle-blowing was a crime. When a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor exposed the stealing of $20 billion from the national treasury, he was suspended and hounded out of the government. We have not forgotten.
“If we have not been talking about this plethora of PDP iniquities, it is not because we have forgotten. Instead, we have chosen to pick up the pieces of the PDP wreckage and move the country forward. This, we have endeavoured to do in the last two years since Nigerians unanimously rejected the PDP for their wanton profligacy and misrule. Nigerians are a forgiving people, and that is why a self-appointed spokesman of what is left of the PDP could have the effrontery to make the kind of statements attributed to Adeyeye. But Nigerians will not forget in a hurry, the years of the locust.”
Some pundits perceive these outbursts as a return to the days of checks and balances on the one hand and the usual attempt at gaining the upper hand, no matter that the same set of politicians had contributed, one way or the other, to the deplorable state of the country since 1999. Still, for other watchers of the two major parties, the recent media spat was a needed respite over the evolving internal crisis they face.
Apparently, the Makarfi camp had found some breather to launch the attack after a cease-fire reached recently with the Sen Ali Modu Sheriff-led PDP. Before then both camps had been locked in an intense internal media spat, such that the PDP, which was naturally supposed to become the leading opposition party, was a shadow of its self.
However while Makarfi’s PDP had dished out sprinkles of criticisms against the APC government, Sheriff’s barely criticizes this administration, a claim the Makarfi team has held on to to buttress their allegation that their estranged party members are working for the APC.
But Sheriff at an encounter with Journalists had explained that if the press doesn’t report his criticisms it is not his doing. For Sheriff it would seem that that his thinking is to fix the party before criticizing the government of the day, a notion that the Makarfi camp isn’t buying.
For the later, they had shaken off their initial layback mode into believing that reconstructing the party could go side by side putting the ruling party in check.
And with new political associations waiting to be registered by INEC as political parties, they might just lose their place as the apex opposition party, even though most of its members are speculated to be sponsors of those associations.
On the flip side, the APC, had in the face of PDP’s crisis become an opposition unto itself on the national level. For a party that controls the Senate, the friction between the APC-controlled Presidency and the upper chamber has created much more than a spectacle but an embarrassment of sorts for the party leadership. The face-off had snowballed into the refusal of the senate to confirm Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) until the presidency called its advisers to order.
What’s more, the APC leadership appears to be lost as to how to address the issue. Some analysts had thought that it would have step in and call its members to order, thereby halting the face-off which has distracted its administration from addressing critical issues like the passage of the 2017 budget via-a-vis reflating the economy, which is looking to be a key point of campaign in 2019.
While a committee has been setup to address the issue, it is yet to seen whether a middle ground will be found. Clearly, more of such exchange will be inevitable as 2019 draws near. But before then, the internal crisis rocking both parties will be instructive as to how they approach the months ahead.