Life will be short, brutish, nasty, poor and solitary for Nigerians as the country will be thrown into the Stone Age should the All Progressives Congress (APC) remain in power for another four years.
The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said this at a pre-“Freedom March” press conference held for its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday.
Spokesperson of a team of stakeholders of the party, Elder Wole Oyelese, said this while addressing newsmen at the Oyo NUJ Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan ahead of the “Freedom March”.
Other prominent Oyo PDP leaders present at the press conference included Mr Femi Babalola (Jogor); a former Minister of State for the FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide; Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarumi; Alhaji Majekodunmi Aborode; Mr Segun Oyewole; Honourable Wale Adegoke and Professor Abiodun Raufu, among several others.
The “Freedom March”, scheduled to take place in the Ibadan metropolis tomorrow (Wednesday), is aimed at sensitising the people of the state on the need to vote for the PDP candidate in the February 25 presidential election.
Cataloguing the alleged tales of woes affecting the country and its people, Elder Oyelese, a former federal minister, declared that “another four years of APC will throw Nigeria into the Stone Age.
Oyelese said: “Since the return of democracy in 1999, Nigerians can now see the difference between the PDP government and the APC government.
“During the [Olusegun] Obasanjo and [Goodluck] Jonathan years when PDP was in power at the centre, the Nigerian economy was much better than what it is now. Nigerians never had to suffer like this.
“Now that Nigerians have experienced the APC government and what they got was unimaginable suffering, the difference is clear.
“Our people are going to bed hungry every night and they still have to sleep with only one eye closed because of insecurity as bandits, terrorists and common criminals prowl the land in search of victims.
“Prices of goods and services have sky-rocketed and become unaffordable for majority of our people. The [President Muhammadu] Buhari administration has piled up debt.
“The infrastructural deficit can be seen in the absence of the most basic amenities. Most of our people are unemployed.
“Young Nigerians have no choice but to dabble into cybercrime known as yahoo yahoo, while others are fleeing Nigeria in droves. We are virtually in a hopeless situation.”
The former minister however said all hopes are not lost as, according to him, “Atiku Abubakar will rescue Nigeria from bondage and suffering.
“He is tried, tested. Atiku Abubakar is the most experienced among the leading presidential candidates.
“He will hit the ground running from day one as president because Nigeria is experiencing a harrowing socio-economic situation and does not need an apprentice president.
“Atiku Abubakar is a detribalised pan-Nigerian, a bridge builder with longstanding friends and associates in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. He is acceptable to all ethnic groups and religious bodies in Nigeria.
“He has the best ideas on how to rescue Nigeria from the years of ruin and damage caused by APC. Atiku Abubakar is the country’s only hope for a better Nigeria.”
Oyelese also disclosed that the PDP at the national level has not foreclosed the possibility of reconciliation in the party. He said: “The door has not been shut. Anybody who wants to come in, including [Governor Nyesom] Wike [of Rivers State], is free.”
Corroborating Elder Oyelese, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide said the PDP presidential candidate is the right person to be the next occupant of the country’s highest elective political office.
She said, now was the right time to have Atiku Abubakar as the president, noting that, it was for a purpose that he has not been the president after several attempts over the years.
“Why is Atiku Abubakar not the president before now? It was for a purpose. God may probably be keeping him till this trying moment.
“Some people are against a Fulani man succeeding another Fulani man. But if a Fulani man wants to destroy the country, it may take another Fulani man to save and restore the country.
“Atiku Abubakar will restructure this country. I don’t think anybody, especially from the South-West, who has been clamouring for restructuring will want to stand against such a man who will restructure the country,” she added.
Also speaking, Alhaji Gbolarumi assured that the internal crisis rocking the PDP will not affect the chances of the party at the forthcoming elections.
He declared: “With or without the G-5 Governors, Atiku will win the February presidential election. This is because it has to do with what he has to offer over 200 million Nigerians.
“What we have at hand is not about the interest of a few people but about what affect the majority of Nigerians. What we are marketing is a good product.”
In his own contribution at the press conference, Mr Femi Babalola asked a question which he said he has been asking whoever that cared to listen to him about the forthcoming elections
“The question is, are we better off now than we were some eight years ago?” “We are worse off,” he responded, noting that the country has been experiencing more than seven and half years of locust.
“We cannot continue like this. The APC has failed woefully. The mission of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is to rescue the country, using what I have termed SEED: Security, Economy, Education and Devolution of Power.
“Some people will say we are back to the trenches. But I want to say that we are down, even far below the trenches,” Babalola added.
