The federal government says the
kind of politics being played by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) constitutes
a threat to the nation’s democracy.
Addressing state house
correspondents at the presidential villa in Abuja on Wednesday, Lai Mohammed,
minister of information, said the PDP and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential
candidate, were doing everything possible to sabotage President Muhammadu
Buhari’s administration.
He said the opposition party and
its presidential candidate are not just overheating the polity but seeking to
make Nigeria ungovernable, “especially through their public utterances and
their poorly-thought-out press releases before and after the 2019 general
election”.
“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,” he said.
“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. 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 ethno-religious 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 a 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.”
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