PDP, threat to Nigeria’s future – Atiku, Amaechi

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Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar

Gov. Rotimi Amaechi

FORMER Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State on Monday said that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party was a threat to the nation’s future.

Atiku in a statement by his media office in Abuja said that those leading the PDP were “backers of the military.”

Amaechi, who spoke shortly after registering as a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress in his hometown, Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area, said the PDP could not save the nation from its current challenges.

President Jonathan had during the formal defection of a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, to the PDP, boasted that only the ruling party could save Nigeria.

But Amaechi explained that the PDP had been in control of the country for many years and could not save it (Nigeria) from the problem of corruption and unemployment.

Amaechi, who observed that Nigeria’s economy was no longer growing, pointed out that the APC was on a mission to rescue the nation from the PDP through the creation of employment for jobless Nigerians.Atiku also urged the leadership of the PDP to get off the moral high horse and stopped name-calling, which he described as the party’s childish response to the crisis of confidence rocking the PDP.

Abubakar said it was wrong for the party to look for scapegoats instead of taking responsibility for the unenviable socio-economic state of the nation.

Obviously reacting to the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh’s scatthing criticism of his move to the APC, the Vice President noted that it was inappropriate for the leadership of his former party to describe him as an “ingrate.”

He said that as a former Vice President and someone who had worked hard for the formation of the PDP, he deserved respect and decent language from the PDP leaders.

He said when leaders speak, they should not do so with “selective memory.”

He said, “The personal insults in the PDP statement succeeded in doing just one thing – to depict its managers as childish, petulant, and above all else incompetent. It confirms the notion on the part of many that  they don’t have what it takes to live up to their ‘sacred’ mandate.

“They have lost their way, and their refusal to recognise the error of their ways has prompted the shepherds to – reluctantly  move on, for the nation’s sake to build a better future for the country’s teeming population.”

He recalled that the new guard in the PDP kept a low profile when he (Abubakar) along with other champions of democracy such as the late Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua, the late MKO Abiola, the late Kudirat Abiola, the late Sunday Afolabi and other members of NADECO including Asiwaju Bola Tinubu fought in the frontline to remove the military from power.

Amaechi, who observed that Nigeria’s economy was no longer growing said, “We are here to rescue Nigeria. We can’t continue (like this). Look at this crowd you are seeing here, 80 percent of them are unemployed and so when they say PDP will save Nigeria, we ask the question, who has been ruling Nigeria for the past how many years? It’s the PDP. So, they can’t be saving Nigeria from themselves.”

Efforts made to speak with Metuh for the reaction of the PDP failed as calls made to his mobile telephone indicated that it was switched off.