BY: Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed
The Peoples Democratic Party Action 23 Group has cautioned the electorate against casting their votes for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential flag-bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), claiming that doing so will amount to an extension of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
This is contained in a statement obtained Track News Nigeria on Sunday and issued by Hon Rufus Omeire, the Chairperson of the said opposition group.
He maintained that given the actions of the ruling party in the last seven years and more, the party has become an existential threat to the survival of the nation.
The statement makes reference to the fresh comment by a former APC National Chairman and ex-Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, who sought to distance Tinubu from the Buhari administration’s performance in office, saying “this is most disingenuous for many reasons.”
According to the statement: “The APC Presidential ticket for 2023 general elections is an attempt to give President Muhammadu Buhari a third term in office.
“Recently, a former APC Chairman and ex-Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, sought to distance Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, the APC Presidential candidate, from the disastrous government of the incumbent President, General Muhammadu Buhari. This is most disingenuous for many reasons.
“In the first place, by the provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria, it is a political party that sponsors a candidate for Presidential election. In this case, Tinubu is being sponsored by the ruling APC. Secondly, for practical reasons, it is the name of the political party that will be on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s ballot paper during elections and so, APC will be on the ballot, not even Tinubu.
Part of the statement reads: “Thirdly, Tinubu is the acknowledged and recognised National Leader of the APC, a position he shares with President Buhari. Indeed, by Tinubu’s own admission, he was largely instrumental in foisting President Buhari on Nigeria.
“He has given crucial support to the APC government of President Buhari and repeatedly publicly praised the policies and direction of the APC government. He is the philosopher king of APC’s misrule in Nigeria.
“Fourthly, during the APC primaries, he was massively endorsed by the party to continue from where Buhari will stop. The word in the APC is continuity.
“The fulcrum of the APC campaign has been a firm promise to replicate the sterling performance of the APC government of Buhari if Tinubu happens to win in 2023.
It said here: “Make no mistake about it, a Tinubu presidency would be just another term for Buhari. Note that Tinubu and Buhari have the same divisive streak, the same arrogance and contempt for peoples’ views and feelings.
“Tinubu is even a worse version, as Buhari at least, resisted the divisive Muslim – Muslim ticket in 2015.
“Notwithstanding, they subscribe to the same policies and programmes. Tinubu is Buhari and Buhari is Tinubu”, the group argued.
The PDP Action 2023 put it that APC now represents a lucid and current loophole to the security, political stability and economic growth of the country.
As said by the Group, the APC represents an existential threat to Nigeria in all critical areas, stressing that Nigerians are scandalized at the ineptitude, incompetence and insensitivity of the Buhari-Tinubu -APC government.
The PDP Action 2023, therefore, urged Nigerians to reject APC in the next year’s general elections and give the reformed PDP the opportunity to rescue and rebuild the nation from the abyss the ruling party has plunged Nigeria into.
Meanwhile, the group appealed to Nigerians not to cast their fingers across the APC, Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) at the 2023 presidential polls, adding that doing so will only return APC to power to continue their plunder of the Nigerian resources and threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence.
