PDP Versus APC

[Culled from *National Mirror*], against the backdrop that the APC is presently shopping for presidential materials, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, yesterday said, [“In view of all these, it is clearly evident that the APC cannot and will not be an alternative to the PDP. “This fact is further reinforced by the fact that even its leadership parades politically expired, analogue and yesterday’s men, including the likes of Bisi Akande, Tom Ikimi, Bello Masari, Muhammad Buhari, Audu Ogbeh, Bashir Tofa and their likes who do not promise any hope for today’s Nigeria and, therefore, cannot bring any meaningful change to the polity.” “The ACN particularly is reputed to always outsource its presidential candidate to the PDP. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the new party’s national executive, six of its 11 members, which is about 60 per cent were former chieftains of the PDP. "The real question is whether this is APC or PDP 2? This is the poser Nigerians will resolve as time goes on.” “They are ideologically ill-defined and seem to have come together for only one purpose, which is to grab power from the PDP and united on one sentiment which is their peculiar hatred for the person of President Goodluck Jonathan. “Is there an offence in being a President from a minority tribe? Those who cooperate with them from the North are not true mainstream northern politicians but rather anarchists and irredentists who pursue political power based purely on ethnic sentiments. “From the first day of the Jonathan presidency, these people have tried all methods to suffocate his administration and make it impossible for him to govern.

“Immediately the President was sworn in, he was made to contend with major post-election violence unprecedented in our political history. This paved the way for the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency also to the level that was totally and absolutely unimaginable; making previous episodes like the Maitatsine riots and similar previous sectarian violence in the North look like a child’s play. “It is to the glory of God, tenacity of purpose and ingenious administrative capacity of Goodluck Jonathan that, in spite of these overwhelming and daunting security crises, the administration still records a most distinguished performance in terms of delivering remarkable dividends of democracy ever recorded in the history of Nigeria. “Isn’t it surprising too that since their coming together, Nigerians are yet to know what the APC stands for in terms of definite programmatic agenda? What do they have that is better than the PDP? “They have no official manifestoes rather what we hear from one leader is a sharp contradiction from what we hear from another. “For example, the leading ideologue of the APC in the North, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, delivered a lecture in London where he spoke unambiguously against the much talked about restructuring of the Nigerian federation, resource control, sovereign national conference and other core demands of the defunct ACN. “The other leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, went to a similar event recently and ingeniously listed out their proposed programmes on power, agriculture and rail transportation which are not in any way different from the contents of the Transformation Agenda of the PDP.”]

 Here is National Publicity Secretary of the APC's,  Lai Mohammed, reaction to Dr. Okupe'...: [“They are so worried and jittery by the emergence on the APC. The PDP is still stunned by the emergence of the party. They are afraid. It is just an attempt to cover up their fear. In the first place, who in the APC is as expired as Tony Anenih? Who is as expired as Bamanga Tukur? “They have nothing more to say and I think they should leave that decision to Nigerians to decide which party parades expired politicians. “I can tell you that they are afraid already. First they said the APC was a party of Muslims, and then they said they are not moved by the party’s registration, now they are singing the expired politicians’ tune. “We would not banter words with them, rather we will continue to mobilize membership across the country.”]..... Lol!