The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday said the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as the sole presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress has indicated that the ruling party was “irredeemably doomed for a crushing defeat” in the 2019 presidential election.
The party pointed out that Buhari’s fear to contest an elective presidential primary, for which he and a few APC leaders allegedly scared away other presidential aspirants with threats and high nomination form fee, had ruined APC’s chance of fielding a good candidate.
The spokesman for the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, who stated this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, added that the APC and Buhari had killed democracy in the ruling party.
He alleged that the President and the leaders of the APC devised means of scaring away others from the race because of the unpopularity of Buhari.
Ologbondiyan said, “Had President Buhari shed his desperation for power and allowed internal democracy within the APC, particularly when it became clear that Nigerians have become averse to his re-election due to his incompetence and insensitivity to their plight, there would have been hope for the APC.
“In muzzling contest in the APC and gleefully emerging a sole candidate, President Buhari has merely won a pyrrhic victory; a General without a troop, without capacity to face a general election, as the army of stakeholders and the masses that supported him in 2015 have left him because of his unfulfilled promises and many failures in governance.”
He added that the President had confirmed by his body language that he had no chance in a party he led.
The PDP spokesman wondered how Buhari could stand a chance in the general elections involving millions of Nigerians who were suffering untold hardship because of his alleged misrule.
He added that the angry Nigerians were waiting to deal the President a blow with their votes.
Ologbondiyan said owing to Buhari’s alleged incompetence, Nigerians’ purchasing power has become abysmally low, while industries had shut down with attendant mass job losses and foreign direct investments hitting all time low.
He also said that international partners had lost confidence in doing business with Nigerians, alleging further that Buhari administration has no economic blueprint except borrowing.
The spokesperson for the main opposition party said Buhari’s desperation to contest in 2019 had made some “members of the party who are democrats” to leave for the PDP.
He said, “Since President Buhari’s declaration to contest the 2019 election, true democrats and other well-meaning citizens have continued to leave the APC in droves to the repositioned PDP, which has now become the rallying platform for all Nigerians in their collective quest for a new President among the array of very credible aspirants in the PDP.
“While it is settled that President Buhari is no match for any of our presidential aspirants, all indices point to his imminent defeat as the PDP remains committed to a credible, free, fair and transparent presidential primary.”
