The Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, has stated categorically and unequivocally that state of emergency declared in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe should not become an excuse for elections not to hold in those states in 2015, as proposed recently by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
PDM boss Bashir Ibrahim said that, “JEGA’S latest pronouncement is in tandem with the now familiar strategy of the Federal Government to prolong the insurgency in those states, continue emergency rule and use these as an excuse to disenfranchise millions of voters in that zone because it knows it cannot win a free and fair election in those states. Clearly, there’s no love lost between the Federal Government under President Jonathan and some sections of the country.”
The Party also frowned at the deliberate and shoddy financial treatment being meted out to the nation’s number one anti-corruption agency, EFCC, which today has declared itself financially disabled and incapable of fighting the menace of corruption which has become endemic in the country. “It is a travesty for the Jonathan Federal Government to claim it is fighting an anti-corruption war when it starves the major anti-corruption agency in the country of funds. This is the most effective way of aiding corruption and enabling the menace to thrive” Mr. Ibrahim insisted.
In the same vein, PDM is urging the Federal Government to take seriously the threat of strike by members of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, as well as those of the oil workers, PENGASSAN, who have promised to down tools if government fails to meet their needs. “With our universities resuming classes after almost six months of a crippling strike, this government will prove it is incapable of managing critical social services sectors if it becomes unable to stop this latest strike”
Ibrahim, who spoke through his Media Advisor, Alaba Yusuf, made this disclosure in Abuja while lamenting the new low to which the nation has been dragged by the non performing government of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The National Chairman also expressed displeasure at the latest Job Survey Report, released recently, that captured 54 percent of Nigerian youths as unemployed.
On these, Ibrahim stressed: “We have said over and over again, that no country can grow without jobs and with its critical segment of its population unemployed while a rapacious and corruption-prone predators in government continue to short-change the majority to feather their nests. The spate of industrial theft of oil, bunkering and open doctoring of state revenue all are responsible for the squalor and poverty into which majority of Nigerians have been thrown.”
He also added that, “it is the constitutional duty of government to cater for the welfare and security of its citizenry. Hence, no eligible Nigerian voter should on account of insecurity not caused by him or her be excluded from voting in the 2015 polls, contrary to INEC’s plan. Let the FG resolve the crisis in the North East and all over country in order to have a peaceful, free and fair general election. We will resist any attempt to disenfranchise Nigerians under any guise.”
“Instead of disenfranchising citizens for no fault of theirs, the PDP-controlled central government should as a matter of urgency tackle insecurity in the North East. In the same vein, the issues being raised by the EFCC and the strike being proposed by Nigerian doctors and oil sector workers must be resolved to save Nigerians from further and unnecessary agony. Nigerians have been compressed and depressed to a point where any additional burden may escalate their frustration and cause conflagration. We at PDM shall continue to plead with our fellow men and women not to lose faith in their country but to come out en masse to make their votes count and make the necessary changes in 2015.
