January 17, 2015
Press Statement
APC Leaders Not Really Supporting Buhari – PDP
Says They Have Abandoned Him
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says leaders of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) have continued to betray their inner aversion towards the
candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari and have indeed abandoned his
campaigns for the February 14, presidential election.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh in a statement on Saturday
said most leaders of the APC do not believe in the personality of
Buhari, resulting in flip-flops and double standards that have been the
fate of his presidential campaign.
The PDP said that while key APC leaders such as former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential
aspirant, Sam Nda-Isaiah have since abandoned Buhari and his rickety
campaign to an inclement fate, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola
has not been able to hide his preference for a younger, more educated
and more articulate President who is able to connect with the current
generation of citizens as embodied in President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Recently, in his failed attempt to discredit the PDP Lagos state
governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje, Governor Fashola betrayed himself
by stating that Agbaje, who is only 57 years was too old to govern Lagos
state. This is indeed the height of hypocrisy considering the fact that
the same Governor Fashola is on the other hand campaigning for a 73
years Buhari to become the President of Nigeria.
Hear Fashola, “If you put an old man there, he cannot do it. If you call
him in the night, he may not pick your calls”. And we ask, who better
fits into this picture than General Buhari who could not remember the
name of his running mate at his campaign rally in Owerri and nearly fell
while trying to climb up the stage in Calabar.
“It is instructive to note despite his later attempt to remedy the
situation, deep inside his heart, Governor Fashola harbors an aversion
to a Buhari Presidency as evidenced in his earlier statements.
“Recently, while speaking to journalists, Fashola said, “when 40-year
olds are now leading nations and our 40-year olds can’t even get to the
Senate, they can’t even become governors. Are we really preparing this
generation for the future? Those are the issues really. We cannot point
to success in other countries and refuse to do what those people are
doing to get things right.’ Is this not as many Nigerians put it, a
coded way of saying Buhari is now way too old for Aso Rock?”, the PDP
said.
The ruling party however said it is not surprised at the double standard
being displayed by APC leaders describing such as “one of their
stock-in-trade”.
It recalled that the former APC Interim Deputy National Secretary and
now its Kaduna state governorship candidate and Buhari’s seeming
supporter, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai had described him as “perpetually
unelectable”.
He was explicit, “Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that
he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military
head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have
wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his
parochial focus are already well known.’
“In a related press interview, the same El-Rufai said he was 25 years
old when Buhari was head of state and wondered why he will not allow the
younger generation as symbolized in President Jonathan to have a shot at
the position.
“According to him ‘I don’t understand that at all and I call on young
people of Nigeria to take their future into their hands and ensure that
in the next election, they vote for a new generation of leaders. The
whole world is now being ruled by young people.”
The party also recalled that the self styled APC leader, Alhaji Bola
Tinubu has a masked repugnance for Buhari informing his questioning of
his integrity over their botched power sharing deal in 2011 when he said
of Buhari “I don’t believe a man running for the president of Nigeria
and not the Emir-ship of Katsina should not have the needed flexibility.
To be a good leader, you have to be flexible and accommodating”.
The PDP then described the current sojourn between Buhari and Tinubu as
a marriage of strange bedfellows driven by a very selfish cabal led by
Tinubu for whom Buhari is a mere pawn in their quest for access to the
economic and political interests of the nation.
The PDP said the APC has remained a party of deceitful persons who
specialize in treachery, lies and cheap blackmail. It recalled that the
APC, a party which descended so low to lie about the age of its 53 years
old youth leader, had also in June last year issued a statement wherein
it alleged that a plane carrying Kano state Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to
attend an APC rally in Ekiti to support former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s
re-election bid was denied landing permission in Akure, only for
Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye to announce that his
boss was at another event in Kano and had no plans to travel to Ekiti
state.
It also recalled that in August last year, the APC queried the presence
of officials of the Department of State Service (DSS) in Osun state
ahead of the August 9, 2014 governorship election, when in actual fact,
the APC governor of Osun state also formally requested for their
deployment.
“Lately, this same party devised means to hack into INEC’s data-base,
clone the Permanent Voter’s Card and ultimately compromise the outcome
of the elections yet has continued to deny even in the face of clear
proof of culpability,” the PDP noted.
Calling on Nigerians to note that the APC is a party of dubious and
unreliable persons pursuing narrow and parochial interests, the PDP
urged them to continue to rally round President Jonathan, who has
consistently shown his sincerity and forthrightness on all national issues