Resist Pressure, Give Assent, PDP NASS Caucus Tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) National Assembly caucus on Tuesday urged President Mu­hammadu Buhari to resist pres­sure from governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to decline assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2022.

The caucus, while speaking through the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, also berated the ruling APC for alleged­ly failing in all the electoral prom­ises it made to Nigerians before taking power in 2015.

Elumelu made these known while addressing members of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) led by its chairman, Sen. Walid Jibril, who were at the National Assembly to pay the caucus a courtesy visit.

“We ask APC to sign the Electoral Act. Sign it. Ni­gerians want it. No more delay, we are ready for it. … They said they want di­rect primaries, we said if it would mean giving Nigeri­ans a very sound electoral reform, we accept. They are the ones rejecting it. They came back again and said they wanted indirect and we agreed. They came again and said they wanted consensus. We have given them consensus. Again, I am hearing that amongst them, those APC governors are still plotting for the pres­ident not to sign. Nigerians are tired of APC”, he added.

Elumelu said the PDP through the National Work­ing Committee (NWC) and the BoT should ensure that party congresses for the election of delegates and the primary elections are conducted transparently, just as he urged that law­makers who have stood firm in providing robust opposi­tion in the National Assem­bly should be considered for return tickets.

“Please tell our party that this is the time that we should imbibe true democra­cy and there must be trans­parency in all the primaries that we are going to organ­ise. Let the popular people be chosen. The issue of im­position should be shunned in our party. This is what my colleagues asked me to tell you.

For our colleagues too, this is the period that we have experienced pandem­ic. Most of us never expected it and we have stood by the party. We have done robust opposition on the floor and we expect that at least my colleagues who have been up and doing and represent­ing the party should be so recognised at the point that they are doing this consti­tution of delegates and also preparing for the forthcom­ing elections,” Elumelu said.

The opposition leader also wasted no time in criticising the ruling APC, saying that the party has not been able to get anything right since coming to power, including something as simple as con­stituting a party’s BoT.

“Let it be on record be­fore Nigerians that it is only the PDP that has a BoT es­tablished today in Nigeria. APC has been battling with setting up one and they have never succeeded in doing so. Let it be on record also that this is the first time any or­ganised political party BoT will visit National Assem­bly members to interact with them. I say thank you to our focused BoT.

Let me also state that we are not like APC. We can never be like them. They have promised Nige­rians so many things. One naira to one dollar, but today it is N596 to a dollar. They have promised Nigeria that farmers would be able to go to farm and produce food for us, today no farmer can go to farm because of insecurity. They promised good roads, but if you go to the airports, you will see a crowd because we do not have good roads. The legacy left by the PDP government is still what we are enjoying today because of bad poli­cies by APC. They are try­ing to mortgage the future of our children by trying to get China to colonise us. Loan, loan, loan!!! APC is known for loan taking and that is very bad.

So coming here to in­teract with us is something that only a focused party can do. APC cannot do it. They set out to select state officers, they succeeded in electing 92 state chairmen and they have not recon­ciled in 36 states plus FCT. And they say they are going to do a convention. Let me take Kano for ex­ample. Ganduje is leading some, Shekarau is leading some, so I wonder which people are coming for the convention, it is going to be another promises like one dollar to one naira. We are not like them who would go to the United Na­tions and lie that they have built specialist hospitals in 36 states. You all know that is a lie, but for a president of Nigeria to go there and say such a thing it is a big shame. We can go on and on,” Elumelu told his par­ty’s BoT.