·Atiku tackles Akume for asking north to wait till 2031 for power shift, espouses justice, fairness
·Ex-VP's calculation on north/south leadership wrong, THISDAY fact-checking reveals
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, said the return of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Ghana and President John Mahama to power, was a sign that the oppressive rule of Nigeria's All Progressives Congress (APC) would end by 2027.
PDP, however, congratulated the people of Ghana for their resilience in defending democracy and ensuring that their Will prevailed in the Saturday, December 7, 2024 Presidential election.
This was as former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has tackled the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, over his permutation that the North should wait till 2031 before aspiring to the presidency.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, PDP said, "The victory of democracy on the platform of the opposition NDC is a clear demonstration of the triumph of the power of the people over misrule and oppressive policies of government as now being witnessed in Nigeria under the corrupt, rudderless and insensitive All Progressives Congress (APC).
"The verdict of the people of Ghana in this presidential election is a signal to the APC that its days in office are numbered as the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, will surely prevail, end APC's oppressive rule and return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.
"It is intolerable that the APC has in the last nine and a half years wrecked our collective patrimony, opened our country to terrorists resulting in the killing of over 65,000 Nigerians, destroyed the creative abilities of our youths, plunged our Naira from about N197 under the PDP to nearly N2,000 to the Dollar with over 34% inflation rate.
"Crippled our productive sectors leading to over 40% unemployment rate, mortgaged the future of our country through reckless borrowing, foisted repressive policies including the rise in the cost of petrol from N97 per liter under the PDP to over N1,000 today and subjected Nigerians to misery, where millions of families can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life.
"Also, unacceptable to Nigerians is that our once thriving nation, which ranked as preferred destination for international foreign investment capital and one of the world's fastest growing economies under the PDP has been brought to its knees by the APC with decayed infrastructure, comatose economy, worsening insecurity and social uncertainties occasioned by ill-conceived and ill-implemented macro-economic policies.
"More distressing is that while Nigerians are subjected to harrowing hardship, APC leaders remain unconcerned and unaccountable; imposing harsh taxes and recklessly looting the nation's treasury to finance their luxury appetites and consumption while arrogantly treating Nigerians as though they are a conquered people," Ologunagba stated.
The PDP said major multinationals had started leaving Nigeria in droves and life had become unbearable that citizens, particularly the youths were resorting to suicide or slavery mission abroad as alternative because of the monumental misrule and insensitivity of the APC.
The opposition party, however, urged Nigerians to recall with nostalgia and earnestly seek a return of the golden years of the PDP in government as their only hope for survival and triumph of their dreams, aspiration and collective Will as a people.
The PDP also called on all institutions of government, especially the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to note the yearning of Nigerians and ensure that all processes were put in place to guarantee that only the Will of the people prevail in elections.
Accordingly, he said, "INEC must note that Nigerians are not ready to accept a repeat of the massive manipulation and perversion of the electoral process as witnessed in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections in our country."
The PDP charged Nigerians to remain firm and steadfast in their resolve to end the suppressive rule of the APC and re-establish good governance on the platform of the PDP come 2027.
Atiku Tackles Akume for Asking North to Wait Till 2031 Before Seeking Power Again
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has tackled the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, for asking the North to wait till 2031 before aspiring to the presidency.
Akume had in a television interview advised the north to shelve their presidential aspiration till 2031 to enable the south complete eight years of presidency else there might be crisis in the country.
Reacting, Atiku through his media adviser, Paul Ibe, asked: "Where then, do true equity and fairness reside?"
According to the former vice president, "By 2027, the South would have enjoyed 17 years of leadership -- eight years under Obasanjo, five years under Jonathan, and four years under Tinubu -- while the North would have experienced only 11 years, with Yar'Adua serving three and Buhari eight.
"This results in a disparity of six years between the North and South, casting a shadow over the balance of power. In any case, the power to elect and vote out their government lies firmly with the Nigerian people, entrusted to them upon the government's ability to prove itself worthy of the people's ballot.
"But has the Tinubu government demonstrated that it deserves to be re-elected? The answer, alas, is as clear as the heavens themselves -- God forbid!," Atiku stated.
Unfortunately, either by accident or design, the former vice-president, left out some facts and figures on the balance of power between the south and the north in the nation's political history.
While his reference point was from 1999, when the nation returned to civil rule, he however left out the pre-1999 era, which saw the north rule Nigeria for 37 years, starting from 1960, when Alhaji Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister and led the nation from 1960 to 1966 before he was assassinated in a coup d'état.
Subsequently, Nigeria has had the rare privileges of being government by one more civil rule and several military dictators, majorly northerners, and many of whom stayed longer in power than a constitutional two terms of eight years that a democracy would ordinarily permit.
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For instance, while General Yakubu Gowon spent nine years in power, Murtala Mohammed spent just a year before he was murdered. Alhaji Shehu Shagari took over as a democratically elected president in 1979 and served for four years before he was shown the way out in another military coup, after he won re-election in a hugely controversial election.
General Muhammadu Buhari served for two years, after upstaging Shagari before General Ibrahim Babangida took over and was in office for another nine years before he, too, was forced to step aside, following his annulment of Africa's freest and fairest election in June 1993.
Taking advantage of this development and the state of the nation, General Sani Abacha, took over from Chief Ernest Shonekan of the infamous Interim National Government in a palace coup, and was in the saddle for five years before Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, took over power for one year and eventually midwifed the transition to civil rule in 1999, after the demise of Abacha in 1998.
Cumulatively, the north in the pre-1999 era ruled for 37 years, 10 of which were civil rule (Tafawa Balewa and Shehu Shagari) while the remaining 27 years marked the reign of various junta regimes.
In conclusion, if the pre-1999 37 years of the northern leadership were added to their 11 years in the Fourth Republic, the north has ruled for 48 years of Nigeria's 64 years of independence, leaving the south with just 16 years. These are simple facts of history taught even in elementary classes.
