Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari
The PDP says the two leaders lack the moral standing to judge others.
The People’s Democratic Party has launched an attack on former head of state and leader of Congress for Progressive Change, Muhammadu Buhari, and his ally, Bola Tinubu, who leads the Action Congress of Nigeria, urging both men to stop parading themselves as “saints and democrats” as Nigerians know their “dictatorial antecedents”.
The party said the two leaders are well-known “despots” who lack the moral justification for their saintly stance on Nigeria’s democracy.
“Buhari and Tinubu are united in dictatorship. It is on this pedestal that they are pursuing their merger to register the All Progressive Congress which manifesto betrays the fact that they have absolutely nothing to offer but desperate for power for their selfish gains” the ruling party said in a statement weekend.
The party lambasted Mr. Buhari for refusing to “change his dictatorial tendencies” by continuing to “impose himself as leader of any political party where he finds himself” and by using his “despotic powers to handpick candidates for elections”.
“In 2003, he forced John Nwodo Jr. and other presidential candidates in the then APP to step down for him leading to the famous ‘I weep for Nigeria’ statement by Nwodo. In 2003 Buhari imposed himself and failed. In 2007 and 2011 he imposed himself and failed. If he imposes himself and his lackey Tinubu or Tinubu’s wife as running-mate in 2015, he will also fail”, the statement, signed by PDP’s spokesman, Tony Okeke, read.
Outbursts between the PDP and two main opposition parties-Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress of Progressive Change-have become a weekly routine, with each side targeting the other with more verbal attacks that are often more personal, than on policies.
The PDP said the CPC had shown itself as a party of falsehoods with its recent castigation of Mr. Buhari’s former aide, Yinka Odumakin.
The statement also described Mr. Tinubu as a man lacking in democratic credentials who should learn to advice himself before pouring “lame vituperations” on the PDP on issues of internal democracy.
“Tinubu has been going around making statements to portray himself as a hero of democracy from which imaginary pedestal he continues to vilify and accuse the PDP of working against Nigeria’s democracy,” PDP said.
“It is to say the least, rather pathetic that the opposition leader has failed to realize that Nigerians have since become fully aware of his double facedness as he has continued to exhibit crass dictatorship in the leadership of the ACN and states controlled by the ACN through which he has continued to syphon the resources of the states.
“It is on record that the so called democrat crowned himself the national leader of the ACN without recourse to appropriate democratic process. It is also on record that Tinubu forced the former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, to leave the Senate, despite his enviable performance, only to replace him with his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who has made no meaningful contribution since she got to the Senate more than two years ago thereby depriving the good people of Lagos State effective representation in the Senate.
“Nigerians have not forgotten how Tinubu recently imposed his daughter, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, who is not a full-time trader to replace his late mother, Abibatu Mogaji as President-General of the Association of Nigerian Market Women and Men.”
The PDP’s statement, which appear a reaction to Mr. Tinubu’s recent criticism of the ruling party over the crisis in Rivers state, also accused the former Lagos state governor of installing his son in-law, Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo, as a member representing Ijero/Efon/Ekiti West of Ekiti State in the House of Representatives while his daughter was imposed as a member of the Lagos state House of Assembly.
“It is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians that Tinubu recently tried to bar a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bamidele Opeyemi from contesting the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, a despotic act which was widely condemned across the country.
“Nigerians have not forgotten that the same man who now parades himself as a champion of democracy ran away at the heat of the military dictatorship, leaving the struggle for acclaimed statesmen such as Pa. Abraham Adesaya, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Dr. Alex Ekwueme among others, just to return at the end of the struggle to wangle his way to become Governor of Lagos State.”
Source: Premium Times
February 25, 2013, 09:13:03 AM