The Presidency on Wednesday declared that the alliance formed with other “small” parties was an admission of Peoples Democratic Party’s inability to win the 2019 election against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, made this declaration when speaking with State House correspondent at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said it had become obvious that even if it got all the other parties along with it in the alliance, the PDP would not win the coming election.
He said it was unfortunate that the PDP was only interested in getting power.
His words: “The PDP doesn’t see anything beyond grabbing power, power at all costs. As an opposition party, they have failed. They have remained disconnected with the masses of our people. It is an irony that a party that boasted as being the largest in Africa is now begging small parties for alliances. Even if they get all those paper parties behind them, they will still fail. A Presidential contest is more than the issuance of daily press releases containing falsehoods.
“They have launched a campaign for the Presidency, a campaign that has failed to get any traction. PDP members are themselves admitting that the campaign hadn’t made a good start, that attendance at rallies had unarguably been thin. The whole thing is not working; that President Buhari is unstoppable.”
Deviating from the issue of alliance, Shehu said if the PDP wanted to make family the issue in the coming elections, the APC would gladly accept the challenge.
Garba in response to the various comments by several organs of the opposition party on remarks made by the President on views publicly expressed by his wife, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, in an interview, said questions raised of the president by the PDP in regard to his wife only amounted to an own goal.
Said he: “The PDP leadership cannot afford to make family an issue in this campaign. Need I say more? The only thing I want to add is that PDP is engaging in mud-slinging because it finds it easier than speaking on their despicable 16-year record in the ourse of which they abused the trust of Nigerians.
“They made a mess of everything including the economy, security and infrastructure. It has come to the destiny of President Muhammadu Buhari to correct their mistakes.”
He continued: “Rather than a so-called cabal, an imaginary creation attached to all past governments of the country, President Buhari is remote-controlled by the 200 million-plus Nigerian people whose interest is uppermost in everything he says and does.
“The PDP doesn’t have the strength and support to fight President Buhari. They don’t have the records in security, economy and the war against corruption to mount any meaningful challenge. They have no records of accomplishments in infrastructure. In the 16 years they held sway, they have nothing to show for the colossal oil revenues earned, including USD 16 billion doled upfront from the Central Bank for power, without a single megawatt to show for all that money. That is why they are dragging the President’s wife into their politics.”
