The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on Nigerians to keep faith with the President Muhamadu Buhari-led administration, saying it is on a rescue mission.
Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, APC National Publicity Secretary made the call at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
“As the ruling party on a rescue mission, we call on all well-meaning people of Nigeria to keep the faith with the administration.
“The graphs are on the positive upward swing, Buhari is laying a solid foundation for a prosperous future, we must endure and be steadfast.
“We have already turned the corner, leaving behind the years of the locusts under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We are headed towards a future that guarantees stability, economic buoyancy, world class infrastructure, reward for hard work and for honesty, and the security of our nation,” he said.
He added: “The PDP remains our collective national vomit which we must never go back to.’’
He, however, added that the year 2018 was significant to the APC for many reasons as it witnessed shameful attempt by political predators to launch themselves back into reckoning.
This, he said, was especially so as those who were roundly rejected by Nigerians in 2015 for their grievous crimes of corruption, impunity, and maladministration struggled to rise up from the dungeon
the people had dumped them.
“They were fierce and reckless in their wicked attempt to return to power to continue their primitive appropriation of our commonwealth for themselves and their immediate family.
“The actions from these elements who have raped our nation for close to two decades were disruptive to the course of progress, being vigorously pursued by the Buhari-led administration,” he said.
Issa-Onilu added that 2018 particularly was a tough year for the APC Government as it had to confront the “monsters” who had found their way into the party during the merger in 2014.
He further added that the said monsters pretended to have cured themselves of their insatiable greed and callous selfish disposition while joining the APC.
He stressed that enemies of the country, however, found out that the beats had changed and their strenuous efforts to steer the APC administration towards their ignominious ways, as they practised under PDP,
had become impossible under Buhari.
He added that predictably, the forces of evil finally gravitated towards themselves and were now ensconced in their wicked nest, called the PDP.
“Unfortunately, they did a lot of damage to our determined efforts in the last three and half years, by constituting themselves into a stumbling-block,” the APC spokesman said.
This, he said, they did using their vantage position in government in conjunction with their associates outside government.
He added that their associates were deploying ill-gotten wealth to pervert justice, create a state of insecurity, propagate falsehood and promote dissent.
Issa-Onilu said it was a callous strategy design to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians.
He maintained that as frustrating as their activities were in 2018, they met more than their match in Buhari, adding that their Dubai-made strategy collapsed like a pack of cards.
He alleged that the PDP, led by its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku paid huge sums of money to some foreign con men in Dubai who posed as strategists.
Their job Issa-Onilu said was to spurn daily fake news and make spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against Buhari, his family members, the Vice President, and APC National Chairman.
He said they were also paid to make allegations against notable government officials, and public institutions to deceive Nigerians.
“The reality has dawned on the fortune seekers in PDP that it is not possible to tag a label of corruption on Buhari as a de-marketing strategy.
“Neither is it possible to campaign based on issues of governance as the achievements of this administration have shown.
“It is obvious that the PDP has found itself in a fix, many in the leadership of the main opposition party are finding it difficult to identify with a character like Atiku,” he said.
Issa-Onilu said it was worthy of note that a few of the PDP leaders, with some residual credibility, were battling with their conscience.
This, he said, was especially so as they were increasingly becoming uncomfortable with the level of immorality that underlines the PDP’s politics.
The APC spokesman said that anyone with a modicum of decency would not be proud of the reputation of PDP, noting that its campaign had failed to present any programme to Nigerians.
He added that the PDP campaign had become a stillborn, saying that like a lion, it roared, but it didn’t last.
“It has joyfully ended up as the bleating of a goat,” Issa-Onilu said.
He stressed that the PDP had nothing to offer Nigerians and had no reason to return to power, adding that its return to power would amount to returning Nigeria to the past.
“The past when our collective wealth was being stolen by a few wicked elites, the past when monies meant for the development of our economy were being pocketed.
“The past when no road, no railway, and no power plant was ever completed, even though huge sums of money were being allocated and released every year.
“The past when labour was stripped of dignity; when the harder you worked, the poorer you became.
“The past when people with no defined business raked in billions of dollars from our economy, acquiring mansions as if they were buying shoes they never had while growing up,” he said.
He recalled that while the PDP was in government, the country was a butt of a joke among the comity of nations and dubious characters were acquiring fleet of private jets.
He added that it was heart-warming to see the PDP campaign crash-land before it reached any threatening altitude.
Issa-Onilu said it has become apparent that PDP was technically out of the race before the election start.
This, the APC spokesman said, was so considering the level of disdain and apathy being demonstrated by the voters across the country towards the party.
