Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has berated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of deploying propaganda to hoodwink Nigerians over its failings.
He said since the APC administration assumed office, it has nothing tangible to show as an achievement, rather, it has been using lies and deployment of hi-tech propaganda to cover up its misrules.
Jonathan criticism of the APC administration came just as leading members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the auspices of Concerned PDP Stakeholders met in Abuja with three of the party’s chairmanship aspirants to try and broker a consensus among them ahead of the December 9 national convention.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday while receiving in audience one of the chairmanship aspirants, Professor Tunde Adeniran, and his campaign team, Jonathan declared that the PDP did well during its tenure from May 29, 1999, till May 29, 2015, when it handed over power to the APC, adding that since then till date, the APC administration failed to impress Nigerians.
Jonathan, who cited instances to back up his claim, challenged the administration to a public debate over his position.
According to Jonathan, “PDP administration did well for 16 years and will continue to do well, but this administration has done nothing-the administration is full of lies and propaganda
“In the power sector, we did well to revive it, but a state governor criticised our government, saying any serious government should be able to fix the power within six months. Today, APC has been in power for how many years? Fortunately, the then governor is in the APC government as a minister.â€
The former president, however, said all hope was not lost as the PDP would go all out and put its house in order for it to return to power in 2019.
He said this has become apparent since Nigerians have been able to see things for them on the differences between the APC and the PDP.
Jonathan repeated his earlier admonition of his party men to ensure that they hold a rancour-free national convention and elect capable and credible leadership.
“With the rate at which people are coming around to associate with a party that lost elections, it shows that the people still believe in the PDP, and with the numbers and calibre of the people coming out to vie for the seat of the national chairman and other offices of our party, it shows that our party still have another chance,†he added.
Meanwhile, a PDP group, the Concerned Stakeholders, led by the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, thursday kick-started a move to prone down the number of aspirants for the national chairmanship seat of the party.
The group which included former governors, ministers, legislators and NWC members met with three of the aspirants, former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran and former Ogun State Governor, Genga Daniel, at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja to seek an understanding among them to support a consensus candidate.
The group resolved to set a committee made up of the director generals of the aspirants’ campaign organisations and some members of the concerned PDP stakeholders to work out details of the consensus arrangement.
In a resolution read out by Mantu at the end of the meeting, the group said it would make sure that elections at the convention are conducted in a free and fair manner and that there won’t be any manipulation of the process.
They also expressed worry of the attacks and counter attacks on the personalities of the contestants, warning that such should stop in the interest of party unity.
The group further stated that such hates speech, if not stopped, could help arm the party’s opponents with lethal weapons to disparage the leaders of the PDP during campaigns.
In their remarks, the aspirants expressed their willingness to go into negotiations.
They also agreed to seek ways of getting the founder of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, to shelve his plan to contest for the chairmanship seat.
