By Ayo Kehinde
Atiku Abubakar, Uche Secondus, Godswill Akpabia after the party’s national convention in Abuja recently
The National Chairman of the People Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, on Monday in Abuja apologised to Nigerians on behalf of his party over what he described “ taking Nigerians for granted and ruling with impunity” for much of the party’s 16 year- rule. He promised that the party would make genuine change if given the chance to rule again in 2019
Speaking at the party’s one -day programme themed, “A Public Discourse on Contemporary Politics and Governance in Nigeria”, Secondus said “In the past, there were impunity and imposition of candidates. These were wrong things that we did. We took voters and Nigerians for granted.
“We are not a spirit and this is why we have to be humble to apologise for imposition, impunity and other wrongdoings. But while we were in government, there was no nepotism, but today nepotism has taken over the polity.
“We have to stand before the people and apologise. We made mistakes. Unlike the All Progressives Congress that will lie and use another lie to cover it, we will apologise for our past mistakes. We are human beings that are bound to make mistakes. How long are we going to lie to our children?
“Since it is said that charity begins at home, I am the very first to admit that our party, the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria, made many mistakes. Consequently, we were roundly sanctioned by Nigerians occasioning our loss at the polls in 2015.
“Let me seize this opportunity to apologise to Nigerians unequivocally for the several shortcomings of our party in the near and far past. It was all part of an evolution process without which there can be no maturity. We are indeed very sorry.”
“Under our watch, there will be no imposition of candidates and no impunity. My colleagues and I at the National Working Committee have vowed to uphold the rule of law as enshrined in our party’s constitution.
“Power has been devolved to the zonal, state and ward levels. The PDP National Headquarters at Wadata House (party headquarters) will only coordinate affairs. There are no votes to be solicited or won at Wadata House. We are committed to the rule of law and assure you that not only will your votes count in our primaries across the land, your voice will also be heard.”
He however lamented that “our currency has been recklessly devalued from N199 in 2015 to nearly N500 a US 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 price was increased from N97 to N145, yet the nation experiences unabated scarcity with its attendant long queues at the filling stations and suffering by the Nigerian citizens.”
“From friends and members of this government, we learnt that while in power for 16 years, the PDP government was able to borrow N6tn and had some projects inaugurated for it, in just less than three years; the APC regime has borrowed N11tn and has not inaugurated a single project,” he said.
