The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told President Buhari and his ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to forget about being on the right side of history as it noted that the ruling party is replete with failed leaders, oppressors and election riggers.
In a statement issued on Friday in Abuja by its national spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan, the main opposition party maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari and leaders of “his dying” APC should apologise to Nigerians “for their misrule and start getting ready for APC’s fizzling before 2023, instead of begging for an undeserved place in history. “
The party said that President Buhari’s expressed hope that history would judge him kindly showed a personal apprehension in confirmation of the failure of his administration and party, APC.
The PDP said: “His comment on history, when the residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) paid him a Christmas visit, demonstrated that the APC has come to the end of its journey and would soon be committed to the dustbin of history.”
The PDP recalled that the president had earlier, in the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC expressed fears over his party’s inevitable fate, adding that “his appeal to history cannot change APC’s trajectory to extinction before the 2023 general election.”
The party noted that the fact that the public was already discussing President Buhari’s would-be successor and preparing for 2023 Presidential election, in less than one year of his four-year second term, showed that “history will not be kind to the dying APC and its administration that have brought so much pain and set back to our nation.”
The PDP posited: “There is no way history can be kind to a corrupt, insensitive, deceitful, and debauched APC and its administration that tumbled our nation from one of the fastest-growing economies to world’s poverty capital; destroyed our national unity, promoted strife and bloodletting; turned a blind eye as marauders run over communities and made our nation a large funeral parlour.
“Indeed, history cannot be kind to the APC and its administration for their extreme treasury looting and exploitation of citizens; wrecking of personal businesses with its harsh policies that put over 40 million of Nigerians out of work; causing so much hardship and insecurity that compatriots resort to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options.
“The APC and its administration cannot have a good mention in history after devaluing our naira to a devastating N350 to a US dollar; failed to account for over N14 trillion stolen by their cabal, allowed their leaders to loot funds meant for infrastructural development and welfare of poor Nigerians; increased the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5 to 7.5 per cent and mortgaged the future of our country by accumulating a whopping $83.8 billion debt in the last five years.
“How would history be kind to APC and its administration with their reprehensible record of reported executive high-handedness, human rights abuse, intimidation of opposition, constitutional violations, disobedience to court orders, attack on institutions of democracy, electoral violence, rigging and restriction of personal freedom of citizens, as detailed in the report by various bodies including the United States Department of State?
“History will not forget how the APC deployed thugs, compromised security agents and a police helicopter to shoot and kill innocent compatriots who came out to perform their civic duties in the September governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, including Mrs Salome Abuh, who was burnt to death by APC thugs.
“How would history be kind to a party and its government that bluntly refused to improve our electoral laws and encouraged the travesty of existing rules?
“The fact is that the verdict of history against the APC and its administration has become inevitable and the APC, as a party has reached the end of its journey.
“President Buhari and other APC leaders should know that Nigerians have already moved beyond the APC and are now contemplating a candidate on the platform of the PDP to fulfil their collective hope and quest to rebuild our nation.”