• In civil society, APC should not canvass for votes
• ‘Yoruba have been sidelined in PDP’
Former Deputy National Chairman (South-West) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, yesterday, stated that the two presidential candidates of the Labor Party (LP), Peter Obi; All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar belong to the old order.
George who spoke in Lagos, therefore, urged Nigerians to shun political parties in the selection of candidates in the presidential election, but rather look at those who can withstand the test of confidence and candidates who will manage the country’s resources as well.
“This election has nothing to do with political parties. Has Obi not attended my (PDP) party yet?” he asked.
George added that until internal grudges in the PDP are resolved, he will not campaign or support Atiku, saying Yoruba people are not treated fairly in the party.
“Nobody from the southwest is making any real decisions at the party, and that’s not how it should be,” he said.
George, who also bemoaned the hardship Nigerians are going through because of the new naira and fuel scarcity, lashed out at the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
He said Emefiele’s decision to redefine the Naira has only brought the country to straits, saying the national economy has collapsed deeper, while people have been made refugees in their country with hunger destroying every home.
The policy on the currency should not have been contemplated in the way it was implemented, he said Nigerians cannot be forced to go from a cash-based economy to a complete cashless regime overnight as the CBN wants.
He said the current disruption in the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) across the country is also scandalous, adding that as the largest producer of crude oil in Africa, the lack of fuel for months, especially during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, reflects the dysfunction in the country mentioned. Nigerian public administration and economy.
George described it as a comedy of internal exchange rate rackets that exist in all countries, where Nigerians get Naira money on the table and from Point Of Sale (POS) operators, there is an ‘exchange rate’ (fee) depending on the financial. the skill of the operator.
He said it was not satisfactory that Nigerians are now paying between 10 percent and 25 percent to get their hard-earned Naira money, saying,
“Nigeria should be the only country in the world where you pay an ‘official’ percentage in local currency to get money in the bank.”
The party leader added that in a civilized society, APC should not have the temerity to campaign for political office, the party has put the country into unprecedented difficulties.
“I see it as absolute madness for anyone to campaign for APC or contest on the platform of APC, because of the shapeless state that the ruling party in Nigeria has thrown. It is sad to see Nigeria slowly descending into a hopeless state.
“In all honesty, I can’t decipher the logic of silence on the edge of the cliff, which the APC government has plunged the Nigerian state into, where there seems to be no opposing views, calling the government to stop and rethink.
Speaking about his concern about the silencing of other political parties who should be worried about the situation, George said, “our party, the PDP, and others, such as the Labor Party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP,) the New Nigerian Peoples Party ( NNPP), seem to have agreed to the current shenanigans.
“I wonder, what hatred, what evil, what insanity would lead any sane person to put Nigeria in the current state of hopelessness, destruction and suffering of its citizens.
“At the same time, I see it as absolute madness for anyone to campaign for APC or contest on the platform of APC, because of the formless state that the ruling party in Nigeria has thrown away.
“It is a puzzle of rationality. It benumbs our feelings as Nigerians waking up every day to the daily agonies of the perennial fuel, dumped on us by the NNPC and the misery of non-availability of cash, occasioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through its Naira rebranding.
“Where is the Presidential candidate of our party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar? Endi Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman. How can the voices of the DG, PDP Campaign Council drown in silence incessantly against the brutality of the APC government with the presidential election just a few days away?
“Why did he allow his voice to be drowned in the silence of the conspiracy? Where are the opposition political parties? What does the silence of the grave mean to Nigerians? It seems to mean that Nigerians’ right to good has been consigned to the dustbin by the political class.
“Governments are elected to ensure the pursuit of happiness, to ensure the protection of personal freedom, to create an atmosphere in which all citizens can carry out their economic livelihood without being oppressed or oppressed by the lawlessness of incendiary actors.”