The Federal Government today accused the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) and its presidential flag bearer in the February 23rd election,
Atiku Abubakar, of planning to sabotage the Buhari-led administration.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the
accusation while addressing State House correspondents in Abuja today
Wednesday May 15th.
Reading from a prepared text titled, “PDP’s Brand of Opposition
Politics Poses Great Threat to Nigeria’s Democracy,” the minister
alleged that the PDP and its candidate were keen to make the country
ungovernable.
The minister who declined to take questions after reading his text stated:
“The Federal Government has strongly decried the increasingly
unpatriotic and desperate opposition politics being played by the PDP
and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, warning that such
dead-end opposition could be toxic for the nation’s democracy if left
unchecked.“Never in the history of politics in Nigeria has an opposition party
and its presidential candidate exhibited the kind of desperate tactics
being deployed by the duo of the PDP and its flag-bearer, especially
since President Muhammadu Buhari overwhelmingly defeated Atiku to win
the 2019 presidential election.“Either by themselves or via their proxies, the PDP and its
presidential candidate are doing everything possible to sabotage the
Buhari Administration, generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria
seemingly ungovernable, especially through their public utterances and
their poorly-thought-out press releases before and after the 2019
general elections.“Unless they quickly retrace their steps, they may, sooner than later, overreach themselves.
“For those who may be quick to accuse the government of crying wolf,
the pre-election statement credited to the former Vice President, that
unless Nigerians vote out the APC Administration, killings by herdsmen
will continue and ultimately spark a series of ethnoreligious crises
that will be irreversible, is looking more like a Freudian slip than
anything else.“Also, in recent times, the PDP has taken its desperation to a new
low by attacking the judiciary, an action many see as indicating a
reversal of the party’s hitherto self-assured stance that it has a solid
case against the election of the President.“And either by coincidence or orchestration, a faceless group emerges
from nowhere calling for an overthrow of a democratically-elected
government, a totally egregious act of treason.“It beggars belief that a candidate who prides himself as a Democrat
can so allow desperation to becloud his sense of propriety to such an
extent that he will be associating with anti-democratic forces or making
inflammatory statements.“For acclaimed democrats, there are acceptable channels of seeking
redress after an election defeat. Even President Buhari himself went to
court three times to challenge election results.“What is not acceptable is to either resort to self-help after an
election defeat or to embark on a journey of subterfuge and sabotage
while also mounting a legal challenge or pretending to do so.“Worst still, painting the judiciary bad for whatever reason is anti-democratic and unconscionable.
“We want to urge the main opposition party to stop beating the drums
of war, concentrate on the legal challenge by its candidate against the
election of President Buhari if indeed they have any faith in the
country’s judiciary, and desist from unnecessarily overheating the
polity.”
