President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been asked not to rejoice yet over the gale of defections into the party by opposition politicians, as these do not translate to the defection of the Nigerian people, who will continue to demand accountability.
National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Debo Ologunagba, who said this on Sunday while interacting with journalists, further stated that the All Progressives Congress has continued to dose Nigerians with a recipe for failure ahead of the 2027 elections.
He also said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot decide the party’s agenda nor fix an elective meeting for the party, as this runs afoul of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended).
Ologunagba said that come 2027, the army of discontented Nigerians who cannot defect to hunger, insecurity or other malaise that has depleted their capacity to meet basic responsibilities would be decisive—adding that such sentiment would terminate President Tinubu’s ambition for a second term.
He advised the President and the ruling APC to focus on the many battles it has attracted into its fold in the name of defections, and pay less attention to fruitless incursions aimed at sowing seeds of discord.
He said the PDP is best at communication and is managing its internal issues effectively. “And I will say to this, APC, know it. You cannot succeed. You brought so many fights into this party. But you will see us moving from strength to strength slowly but surely, and we will.”
He said the march to 2027 demands actions that the Nigerian people can feel and relate with—unlike the present wave of discontent.
“What will be on the ballot is the Nigerian people. The good thing is that Nigerian people are not defecting. You know why? Because they can’t defect to hunger. They cannot defect to insecurity. They can’t defect to life-discounting experiences on a daily basis. They cannot defect to the fact that the disunity of the country is expanding on a daily basis.
“They cannot defect to the fact that there are a few members of the cabal who are okay. And they are saying, no, we are okay. You should understand that we are okay.
“Therefore, you must be okay. Even if people are dying, and they do die every day. So those are the issues that will be on the ballot.
“It’s not so much about whether they do themselves and say, oh, we are doing well. You are singing to yourself. And then you are reciting about corruption, monumental.
“You are in a country where you are buying an aircraft of 360 billion Naira, when people can’t send their kids to school. When they can’t go to hospital.
“I went to a state in the last one week. And in the whole state—it is an APC state—I will spare them for now because there will be more conversation.
“We are going to take those issues one at a time. There is not one MRI machine in that state. Not one MRI machine. APC as a government does not see us. They see themselves. But I think Nigerians are set for 2027.
“APC should know that President Tinubu is a one-time president. With what’s happening in this country today, those are recipes for one time.
“Because people are dying. People cannot feed. They can’t send their kids to school. They cannot even buy their medication. People are dying by instalment on a daily basis. And if you don’t change that, that is what is called one-time president,” the PDP scribe stated.
Ologunagba said a curious matter of interest, which clearly calls into question the impact of the many capacity-building trainings the party has conducted, reared its head through the views expressed by Mr Halilu Aminu, who is not a member of the PDP, nor has the authority of the 99th NEC which took a decision for the 100th NEC meeting slated for 30 June in Abuja.
His words: “We never mentioned here that we are conducting a meeting to elect officers. We didn’t say we are going to do primaries to get nominated for an elective position. We didn’t say we are meeting because we are considering the possibility of merger. So where does Halilu Aminu—where did he get that from?
“So he decided on his own to import a purpose for a meeting to satisfy some vested interest—on what we are getting from the grapevine—to ensure that they can continue to stifle the capacity of PDP to do its things in line with its Constitution.
“For the record, there have been several times we have issued notices—21 days’ notice—for congresses or other meetings that require those things to INEC, and we have had cause at some point to even shift those dates.”
“So how did this acting secretary decide on his own to create and become a member of a political party and create for us an agenda that was not conveyed in the letter of the Acting National Chairman?
“So the challenge for us now as a party is to say, who is the acting secretary of INEC? Who is he working for? What is the objective? Why is he creating an agenda for our party for a regular statutory meeting that is routine?
“The bigger dimension to the whole matter is that INEC has partners all over the world. They have various bodies and organisations in the world that are supporting INEC’s capacity to be able to remain independent, to be technically capable, and to ensure that they meet with the electoral process. Those partners, those institutions—they are interested.
“INEC should be conscious about actions like this that can bring in issues that will affect our democracy and the confidence that those international partners have in INEC’s ability to have capacity building and ability to have systems and technology to help in ensuring that we have a free, fair, and credible electoral process in this country,” Ologunagba stated.
