The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has pushed back the failure comparison on it by Attahiru Jega, a former national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Mr Jega, a chieftain of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), had recently described the opposition party and the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a failures while presenting his as an alternative he said has the solution to the woes of the country.
While the PDP ruled the country from 1999 till 2015, the ruling APC took over power in 2015.
In a statement on Monday, Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, said the comparison made by the former INEC boss is an unpardonable disservice to Nigeria.
Mr Ologbondiyan said his party stabilised the economy when it held sway but the APC which he helped enthroned has wrecked it.
“Trying to compare the incompetent and decadent APC to the highly productive and development-oriented PDP is an unpardonable disservice to our nation and calls to question the sense of judgment of Professor Jega,” Ologbondiyan said. “It is indeed unfortunate that Prof. Jega, as a professor of political science, could portray an ignorance of the manifest contrasts between the robust fortunes of our nation under the PDP and the wasteland she has become under the APC.
“Perhaps the Professor needs to be reminded of how the PDP worked hard to revamp our nation’s economy, paid off our huge foreign debts and went ahead to grow the economy to become the largest investment hub in Africa as well as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with Fitch B+ rating; only for the APC to wreck the economy and turned our nation into the world poverty capital and a debtor country in a space of six years.
“Prof. Jega must also be reminded how the PDP reinvigorated the private sector with new businesses and employments springing up in critical sectors of telecoms, aviation, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, education, retailing, hospitality, healthcare and banking among others.
“Today, under the APC and Buhari, these gains have been wrecked with massive closure of businesses, which saw over 60 million Nigerians losing their means of livelihood, with alarming 33.3 percent unemployment rate and over 82.9 million more and about 25 million families not being able to afford their daily meals as our country ranks 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, due to the obnoxious policies of the APC and President Buhari.
“We invite Professor Jega to note how the PDP ran an all-inclusive and transparent administration that guaranteed freedom of speech, equity, fairness as well as free and fair elections, which he attested to; and how the APC, had been running a massively corrupt, insensitive, divisive and exclusionist administration that has destroyed our national cohesion and turned our nation into a battle field.
“As professor of political science, Prof. Jega ought to know that while the PDP is an ideologically based political party, the APC is just a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) operated on the basis of deception and that is why it has failed in all ramification and now fizzled in the eyes of the law.
“Nigerians are already confronting the fact of the failures of the APC as well as President Buhari and would therefore not require a manipulative tendency of any individual seeking political relevance ahead of 2023.
“After all, the roles which Prof Jega played in bringing this failed party and administration into office are still fresh in the hearts of Nigerians,” he added.
