The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has dismissed the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as being a political party in the real sense of the word, describing it as an “alliance of convenience” that will collapse after a taste of defeat in the forthcoming presidential elections in February.
The former Vice President stated this shortly after the inauguration of the youth wing of PDP’s Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja on Thursday.
Atiku said APC as currently constituted is an alliance of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and the carcass of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the erstwhile political party of APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The PDP Presidential candidate said the APC will discontinue existing especially after tasting defeat in 2023, stressing that the PDP being the oldest political party in Nigeria has gained enough experience and grounds to sustain Nigeria’s democracy over the years.
“You see, to be honest, PDP is the only party in this country. The APC is an alliance between CPC and Tinubu’s party. We are going to defeat them at the polls and then they will be dead. I do not see them survive after”.
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Atiku further mocked the APC, especially in the way the party had in the last 7 and a half years managed the country’s unity and resources, saying “I do not think there’s change anywhere”.
Atiku however charged the newly inaugurated National Youth Campaign Council, drawn from the six geo-political zones to take his message of hope down to the nooks and crannies of their wards and inspire in them his agenda of resetting and rescuing Nigeria from the doldrum APC stands for.
In his goodwill message, PDP’s Vice Presidential candidate and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa agreed with Atiku when he said
Nigeria is in distress at the hands of APC but the country is in dire need of a “Chief Medical Consultant’ in the person of Atiku Abubakar to revive it from its coma.
He however said the task of reclaiming Nigeria from years of misrule by APC rests squarely on the Nigerian youths to make the right choice by investing their future in the hands of Atiku who has always spoken truth to them and shun the pack of lies and deceit by the ruling party and its candidate.
“I have the opportunity to go through the list of members of the PDP Presidential Youth Campaign Council and I am encouraged that there is a great future for this country.”
“That great future is however based on the fact that PDP will take over in 2023 and we will rescue our nation and make it recover from the bad governance of APC.”
“The nation of Nigeria today is not the Nigeria of our dreams and many youths are troubled about that and what the future holds for them”.
“There is therefore a lot of work for you to do and it rests squarely on the youth. The future is not bleak and we can make the right choice but what is required is the right leadership and the person who can do it is Atiku Abubakar”.
“Atiku is one man that believed that collectively we can build a new nation where there will be inclusion and no part of this country will be ignored”.
“The same cannot be said about the APC. This is not how to treat a country in distress. No doubt, we(Nigerian citizens) are in distress at the moment”.
“Atiku has always spoken the truth to us. Tell the youths that in the Nigeria of today that is troubled that there is only one man Atiku who can fix the country”.
The Deputy National Chairman(North), Ambassador, Umar Iliya Damagun who represented the National Chairman, Iyochia Ayu also charged the youths to seize the opportunity offered by the PDP to create the kind of change and country they truly deserve even as he called on them to eschew violence and not behave like the youths the APC is grooming for the country.
Also present at the well-attended event were the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, Aminu Tambuwal, the Deputy Director General of Operations and former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Liyel Imoke and a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Nigerian youths constitute 71% of the roughly 93 million voters registered for elections in 2023.
Editor: Omor Bazuaye
