PDP not dead, party tells Kwankwaso

The Peoples Democratic Party has cautioned former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, against utterances capable of destabilizing the National Assembly and rubbishing the prevailing political tranquillity in the country.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Tuesday said the party was particularly shocked by what it called a hate statement from Mr. Kwankwaso wherein he used offensive language on the PDP and its members in the National Assembly.

Mr. Kwankwaso had while reacting to the recent election of principal officers in the National Assembly on Monday in Abuja stated that the decision by the leadership of his party, the APC, has resurrected the “dead” PDP.

Mr. Metuh said the PDP was “taken aback by the venom and bitterness in the statement especially coming from a former governor, an elected senator, a highly respected former member of the PDP, who also benefitted hugely from the party as minister and two-time state governor”.

The PDP said it would have wished not to join issues with politicians who grew their political profile in the party no matter where they are at the moment, but regretted that “Senator Kwankwaso went too far in declaring the party dead just because he is aggrieved that the Senate Presidency did not go his way”.

It said it was “indecorous, mischievous and misleading for anybody to declare a party with an enviable history as the PDP, with 14 state governors, 47 Senators and hundreds of members in the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly dead”.

“Where was Senator Kwankwaso when a party he claimed was dead defeated his choice candidate in the Senate? Was it a dead party that was able to do what according to Kwankwaso, no other party could do in the 16 years of PDP control of the National Assembly?

“Indeed, we found it very baffling that such unguarded statement came from a person who contested for the high office of the president of Nigeria.

Mr. Metuh said statements from personalities such as the former governor should be decorous, statesmanlike and focused on the national interest instead of promoting acrimony and division in the polity.

He said “the unfortunate outburst is well below Mr. Kwankwaso’s character and status and we urge him to desist from such”.

The party underlined that Mr. Kwankwaso and other APC leaders should rather be grateful to the PDP senators for being disciplined and not using their preponderance at the inauguration to take the entire leadership of the Senate following the opening created by the APC leaders in convening a meeting of senators-elect at the same time fixed for the election of the leaders of the National Assembly.

Furthermore, the PDP dismissed as frivolous, Mr. Kwankwaso’s “unfounded and unsubstantiated claim that PDP’s agenda is to irritate President Muhammadu Buhari and put hurdle before him”.

The party recalled that it had repeatedly assured that it would help the government by providing robust and constructive opposition that would help his government unlike APC’s hate opposition, adding that such baseless complains would not stop Nigerians from holding the APC-led federal government responsible on its campaign promises.

The party also described as laughable Mr. Kwankwaso’s claims that under President Buhari, everything is working well in the country and wondered why he failed to give the credit for the stability in the nation to whom it is due, immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan whose conceding of power even amidst electoral irregularities brought the conducive atmosphere the nation is enjoying today.

The party noted with delight the statesmanlike stance of President Buhari who at the just concluded African Union summit in South Africa eulogised former President Jonathan for taking the unique action that brought calm to the country.

On Mr. Kwakwaso’s claim of giving 1.9 million votes from his state and over 750,000 votes from his senatorial zone to Mr. Buhari and APC, the PDP said it does not want to join issues with him on that because of its decision to toe the path of peace.

The PDP, however, said it notes the electoral ridicule of 1.9 million voters, with no single void vote, a record, it said, is for the Guinness Book.

The PDP therefore advised Mr. Kwankwaso and others like him who may still be aggrieved about the turn of events at the National Assembly to see it as democracy in action and note that the two major religions in the country hold that only God gives power and that if He did not destine that Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, would emerge President and Deputy President of the 8th Senate respectively, it would not have happened.