BY RAYYANU BALA
Since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the 2015 election to the
All Progressives Congress (APC), palpable desperation to return to
power has enveloped the party right from day one.
The intrigues surrounding the resignation of Ahmed Adamu Muazu as the
party’s national chairman and the emergence of former governor of
Borno state, Alhaji Modu Shariff as the caretaker chairman of the
party as well as the intrigues and maneuvers which trailed Sheriff’s
ouster from office via a Supreme Court judgment, all point to the
desperation on the part of the PDP to return to power in 2019.
Other signs of desperations which the PDP are exhibiting, consciously
and unconsciously, have to do with the way and manner the party’s top
hierarchy are conducting themselves in private and public. In all
their discussions either in public or privately, the issue is on how
to return to power, as though, Nigeria belongs to them.
Hardly a day passes by without reading on the pages of our newspapers
or on our radio and television stations, lamentations of PDP top-shots
on how, according to them, they ‘foolishly’ allowed power to slip out
of their hands. And the agreement which they all seemed to append
their signature to is, ‘we must return to power either by hook or by
crook in 2019’.
The emergence of Uche Secondus as national chairman of the party
provided them the opportunity to come out with their desperations to
return to power openly and aggressively without minding the
consequences of their actions to our nascent democracy. Since Uche
Secondus assumed office, he and his co-travelers in the PDP never hid
their disdain for the people of Nigeria. The 16 years which they spent
in the mismanagement and plundering of Nigerians’ collective patrimony
seemed not to be their concern; the only thing they offered for their
mindless looting was apology, an apology which doesn’t even come with
proportionate remorse.
Yes, since the PDP lost power, they have never taken any action nor
made any pronouncement that will convince Nigerians that the party is
remorseful for the plundering of our collective resources. What always
come out of their mouth is “we will return to power”, as though the
power belongs to them to use and misuse.
The PDP’s arrogance and barefaced lies are what we are daily made to
contend with, at their forums. In both the PDP campaign rallies and in
all their public engagements, what we continue to witness are outright
lies and boastful stance about returning to power in the forthcoming
general elections.
The PDP national chairman, Chief Uche Secondus and all the PDP top
shots and their apologists are, in recent times, fond of making
utterances to the effect that “PDP will return to power” and
threatening that “there will be war if they rig the election”.
Chief Secondus at the PDP presidential campaign rally in Asaba, Delta
state was quoted as threatening fire and brimstone on the forthcoming
elections. Virtually all those that matter in the PDP were not left
out of the frenzy of PDP returning to power. But the question to ask
here is: why the desperation by the PDP to return to power?
Yes, from all intent and purposes, the PDP is desperate to return to
power and as I see it, the level at which these desperations are
going, the PDP will stop at nothing to ensure that power returns to
them. And more than anything, these desperations are serious threat to
our democracy.
The desperate situation under which PDP found itself today, due to
sheer greed and avarice will certainly make it do desperate things.
For a party that was in power for 16 solid years and exhibiting in
less than four years, this kind of desperation to return to power,
clearly shows that this party must not be allowed to return, or else
we will all be in trouble.
The language which leaders of the PDP are using now indicates that
they may truncate this democracy, if not allowed to return to power.
Already there are ominous signs emanating from the PDP about the
return of the military. The national chairman of the PDP Uche Secondus
at a dinner in Abuja last August to welcome some defectors to PDP
expressed the preference of the PDP for a military regime than
democratic rule, when he said, “a military regime is better than this
government”.
Secondus went further to say, “We have seen in the past few years that
the APC led government have foisted on this nation a kind of military
democracy that can not be described. It is better for us to have full
blown military”.
Indeed, for Secondus and the PDP to come out and advocate for a
military rule, is, to say the least, not only appalling but sign of
irresponsibility. Was it not this very PDP which at the nadir of their
rule said: “the worst civilian regime is better than the best military
regime?”
Is it simply because power slipped off their hand that is why they are
saying a military regime is better than civilian rule? Clearly, this
level of desperation to return to power by the PDP and the unsavory
comments from its leaders, if not checked, would lead to something
untoward. There is an urgent need for our security agencies to keep an
eagle eye on the PDP against any eventualities that may perhaps come
out of their desperations.
As February 16 is inching closer with barely 10 days away from today,
Nigerians must come out and ensure the defeat of PDP not only at the
polls but in all the games they may wish to play on Nigerians’
intelligence. In Nasarawa state, we have all resolved to give the PDP
a crushing defeat and are battle ready for them at any field they wish
to take the game to.
The time to show to the PDP that Nigerians can no longer be taken for
a ride is now. We must show to them that enough is enough. We must
let them know that Nigeria is bigger than any individual. And we can
only achieve this by coming out to vote massively for the APC from top
to bottom in the forthcoming general elections.