President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday described the
leadership of the opposition People's Democratic Party as drowning men who
wouldn't mind clutching at any straw for political survival.
Buhari, in a statement by
his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the
PDP's decision to drag the All Progressives Congress and
the Independent National Electoral Commission to the United Nations alleging
plan to rig the 2019 general elections was not only laughable and puerile, but
also demonstrated
the level of desperation haunting the opposition leaders.
Shehu said by dragging the UN into its political
propaganda, the PDP was indirectly suggesting that it was afraid to face the
voters in 2019.
According to him, "rigging is PDP’s main
area of core competence and its party leaders are drowning men who won't mind
clutching at any straw for political survival."
He said President Muhammadu Buhari was passionately
committed to free and fair elections in Nigeria "and for a man who joined
forces with local and international observers to ensure a free and fair
election which brought him to power in 2015, the president would under no
circumstances tolerate any attempt to derail constitutional democracy.
"The outcome of the gubernatorial
elections in Edo, Ondo and Anambra States stand as clear examples of President
Buhari's commitment to free and fair elections in the country, and Nigerians
should indeed be wary of PDP's desperate propaganda.
"For the PDP to
be preaching free and fair elections is like a street-walker
preaching about chastity. We must recall that the PDP postponed the 2015
general elections in the guise of national security challenges because defeat
was staring it starkly in the face. However, despite the delay tactics, it was
resoundingly defeated when the polls finally held."
He said the PDP had lost every moral
ground and was mortally afraid of facing the 2019 general elections
"because Nigerians will always remember their past and punish them
one more time for economically plundering the country.
"Rather than hiding behind
allegations of a plot to rig the elections, the opposition party should work
harder to win back the trust of voters instead of
spreading false alarm to gain international sympathy."
"It is unfortunate that the PDP
is desperately trying all dirty tricks, including the exploitation of tragedy,
for political advantage."
Shehu urged the PDP's leadership to stop
raising false alarms in order to gain public sympathy and divert attention from
its abysmal past record and failures.
He said the opposition's leaders
should, instead, address the concerns raised about their role in the mass data
harvesting at the heart of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal,
following the revelation that they hacked into Candidate Buhari’s personal data
in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
The presidential spokesman
maintained that nothing undermines a country’s democracy as such unfair
practices.
"That is why President Nixon
resigned to avoid impeachment when they hacked into the opposition, Democratic
Party records, and this is why a Special Counsel is investigating the alleged
Russian interference in the US presidential election, and if President Donald
Trump’s campaign is complicit in the attempted subversion of democracy in that
country.
"The Cambridge Analytica
hacking scandal committed against Candidate Buhari by the PDP in
2015 in which billions of Naira was paid out to the Israelis and others hackers
has shown that the former ruling party lacks both the integrity and credibility
to talk about election rigging.
"Instead of explaining their
role in the scandal, the nation is greeted by stunning silence. Do they think
this will simply blow away?," Shehu quizzed.
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