Breaking his silence for the first time since his arrest and prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has described the lingering fuel crisis crippling economic activities nationwide as a clear evidence that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) merely hoodwinked Nigerians with empty campaign promises of eldorado in order to vote the party into power and in the end, has nothing but pain and suffering to offer.
Reacting to the daily pains and anguish Nigerians are forced to face in the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Metuh in an exclusive e-mailed interview with THISDAY, said with the current state of the economy and the hopelessness in the polity, PDP would flush out the ineffectual APC from power in 2019.
He explained that the crushing difficulties the citizenry are forced to experience daily coupled with the president’s recent appeal for Nigerians to be patient with his administration were evidence that the “jury is out” on APC’s campaign promises.
“The dust shielding all the lies and propaganda against PDP has now cleared. The citizens have come to realise that they were misled. Rising inflation, lack of palliative programmes, abandoned infrastructure around the country, insecurity, inability to provide basic amenities like fuel, increased unemployment, youth restiveness, lack of with foreign exchange for legitimate business transactions, decline in direct foreign investment, above all, the growing impunity of the APC government at all levels will spell doom for it in 2019,” he insisted.
Metuh also accused the APC-led government of promising Nigerians what it could not deliver and acknowledged that the PDP lost the presidency to APC’s superior propaganda machine which orchestrated half-truths and lies to unseat the PDP in the 2015 elections.
According to him, “I can tell you that our party was a victim of calculated propaganda orchestrated by the then opposition, which the unsuspecting public bought. While we were being mindful and decent in running only an issues-based campaign that was predicated on facts and truth, the then opposition was busy pushing all sorts of falsehood into the polity.”
Metuh explained that the ruling party’s poor performance to date was hardly surprising because it has neither a clear cut manifesto nor ideology, and predicted the implosion of the APC in the near future, adding that the veil that had covered Nigerians has now been lifted and Nigerians have now realised that all the promises were a hoax.
According to him, “To tell you the truth, I do not see the APC as a political party. It is merely a vehicle through which some individuals rode to acquire power by means of propaganda. That is why it does not have an ideology or clear-cut manifesto. All it had was a sort of bandwagon change mantra and unrealistic list of promises which the people have now realise are a hoax.”
The PDP spokesman added: “The APC has since lost its bandwagon followership and cannot face the challenge of governance. On the other hand, the PDP has regained the confidence of Nigerians and is ready to ride back to power. So in 2019, it is not only that the PDP will overwhelmingly beat the APC in the presidential election, but we would also regain all the states and constituencies we lost to the APC.”
Reflecting on the PDP’s loss to APC in last year’s general election, Metuh said: “As the spokesperson of the PDP, I would say that there were certain mistakes that were made from which lessons have been learnt. As a party that endeared democratic principles for 16 years, we accepted the results of the elections in good faith. As far as we were concerned, Nigerians spoke with regard to how they saw things at that material time and we have moved on.”
Speaking on what the PDP is doing to reposition and retake the presidency in 2019, he explained that “after the elections, we took time to do some stocktaking. We reviewed our activities through the post elections committee headed by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
“This committee made important findings and recommendations and we have started the implementation of those recommendations. I have no doubt that our party will bounce back stronger and better because we still remain the only true national party, committed to the national interest and overall wellbeing of the Nigerian people, irrespective of our imperfections,” Metuh added.
No comments:
Post a Comment