2019: Secondus, Atiku, Sambo, Lamido, others set stage for PDP campaign

Prominent leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party ‎(PDP) yesterday set stage for the 2019 electioneering campaign.

They are the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus; former Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Namadi Sambo; former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamid and former governor of Kaduna State Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Others are former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu; former governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, ex-governor of Kaduna State, Ramalan Yero; ‎PDP ex-acting national chairman, Bello Haliru Mohammed; BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin; PDP ex-deputy national chairman, Chief Bode George and many more. 

‎The campaign stage was set at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, with the theme:"Nation Building: ‎Resetting the Agenda."

Secondus, who spoke on the campaign strategies of the PDP also knocked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for 'failing in critical sectors of national life.'

‎He claimed that the APC-led government had borrowed N11 trillion within three years while the PDP-led government borrowed only N6 trillion in 16 years.

"Not even during the fratricidal civil war has this country been so divided along ethnic and religious fault lines. ‎Today, the scorecard of the ruling party on all scores, is embarrassingly abysmal."

"Three years down the line and about 12 months to the next general elections, what is the state of our country? All gains have been clearly eroded through an acute lack of the understanding of the intricacies of governing a complex state like Nigeria." 

"It has quickly become apparent that propaganda and unrealistic promises that helped the current ruling party to power could not and cannot deliver the much needed dividends of democracy. 

"On corruption, I need not go into details except draw your attention to the latest Transparency International Report that shows that the corruption index under the watch of the so called anti-corruption government has worsened. 

"Today there is often swift action occasioned by extensive media trials when it comes to investigating opposition leaders all in a desperate move to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

"On security, Boko Haram has not only remained alive despite several political claims of decimating it but is even now spreading under a new name and nomenclature called herdsmen, that have been tormenting, maiming and killing hundreds of Nigerian children, women and men across the country with the government of the day offering feeble responses. 

"Everyday our media is awash with the staggering number of wanton killings raising questions about the value of human life in Nigeria. It is an endless stream of bloodletting directly or indirectly fueled by incompetent leadership. 

"Only recently the federal government tried to arm twist state governors to take from the common purse, the sum of $1billion dollars about N365b for the tackling of Boko Haram they claimed they defeated two years ago. 

"This government has through incoherent and inconsistent policies and actions, dragged us into an unnecessary recession and it is patting itself on the back for getting us out of where we ought not to have been in the first place. The hardship currently faced by Nigerians is unprecedented. 

"Our currency has been recklessly devalued from N199 in 2015 to nearly N500 a dollar before it came down to about N365 only due to an increase in oil prices and not any significant thing done by this government. Fuel prices rose from N97 to N145 yet the nation experiences unabated scarcity with its attendant long queues and suffering by the Nigerian citizens. 

"From friends and members of this government, we learnt that while in 16 years PDP government was able to borrow N6trillion and had some projects commissioned for it, in just less than three years, APC regime has borrowed N11trillion and has not commissioned a single project," Secondus said. 

Secondus however, apologised to Nigerians over the errors ‎made by the PDP while in government and promised the party would do better if given another mandate in 2019. 

DailyTrust