(By Ndubuisi Orji – ABUJA)
National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday, assured Nigerians that the party would play robust and vibrant roles to activate the polity in 2018.
In a New Year message, signed by his media aide, Ike Abonyi, Secondus said the PDP has been re-energised to play its role to strengthen the nation’s democracy.
The PDP leader said after going through the political furnace, the main opposition has learnt its lessons and now prepared to return to power, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress( APC) has shown that it could not translate” its power grabbing conspiracy into governance”.
He stated that in 2017, the APC administration dragged the country almost to the brink because of “its parochial and exclusive approach to governance.”
Secondus added that “2017 was tough for us but the worst is over, we are now more than ever determined to take power back in Nigeria because the writing on the wall is clear that the ruling party cannot cope.
“We sympathise with Nigerians for the hardship they have been going through in the hand of APC administration but assured them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
“In the out going year, we all witnessed how APC government snubbed our courts as well as resolutions of the National Assembly, such things are dangerous and antithetical to good governance and democratic growth. The new year, 2018 is strategic and critical in the political life of the nation, because activities in the year will determine the success or otherwise of 2019”.
The PDP chairman appealed to the media, civil society and other critical stakeholders in the nation’s democracy to continue to hold the present administration accountable.
He urged the stakeholders to ensure that anti-democratic behaviours, like disregard to court orders and resolutions of the parliament, exhibited in 2017 by the federal government are not allowed to stand.
Meanwhile, the PDP has congratulated Liberian President-elect, George Weah on his victory.
The party in a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, also congratulated Liberians and the country’s electoral commission for a peaceful and successful political transition.
It said the outcome of the Liberian presidential election is an indication that democracy has taken firm roots not only in that country, but also in the entire African continent.
Consequently, the opposition party charged the chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu to ensure that the 2019 general election is credible.
It said the electoral body must insulate, “the commission from external interferences, particularly from the ruling APC as well as weed out all compromised officials, who could be used by undemocratic forces to try to subvert the will of the people.”
Besides, the PDP urged Nigerians to join in strengthening the nation’s democracy “through active participation in political education and mobilization to ensure an electoral process that will ultimately rescue the nation from the clutches of APC misrule.”