The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to address Nigerians on the occasion of the 2018 Democracy Day scheduled for Tuesday.
The PDP in a statement by its publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said “in the last three years, such addresses had contained deceits, falsifications and unfulfilled promises”.
Nigerians have become frustrated with these “lies,” said the party.
Democracy Day in Nigeria is usually celebrated yearly on May 29 to mark the restoration of democracy in May 1999 after decades of military interregnum.
Nigerian presidents usually use the occasion to enumerate the strides recorded in the democratic sojourn and achievements by their administrations.
But the oppositon party which lost to the ruling APC in 2015 advised Mr Buhari via its statement Sunday not to bother to use the occasion to “feed Nigerians with lies” over its percieved lack of achievements.
It said the Buhari Presidency and the APC since assuming power “has only violated all tenets of democracy, and trampled on citizens rights”.
The PDP said the APC should not be associated with democracy under any guise.
“Indeed, this administration should not come close to the emblem of democracy, as such would be an unpardonable spat on the faces of millions of suppressed Nigerians and the graves of victims of extra-judicial executions under this administration, as catalogued by international bodies including, Transparency International (TI), Amnesty International (AI) and even the United States Department of State.
“Where is democracy when government tends towards military fiat: where citizens are wantonly arrested, locked up and dehumanised just for expressing political opinions considered to be at variance with views held those in power?
“Where is democracy when our National Assembly, the very bastion of our democracy, is under siege; where federal lawmakers are daily blackmailed, hounded, harassed, intimidated, detained and dehumanised; where strange elements invade the hallowed chambers of the Senate, threatened our senators and forcefully cart away the mace, yet nobody has been prosecuted?
“Where is democracy when court judges are arrested in the middle of the night by agents of state; top government officials engage in actions and speeches that promote division, hatred and bloodletting; when journalists and media houses are being harassed and intimidated and our nation, in the last three years, ranking among the most hostile to free press?,” the party asked.
However the PDP saluted the courage and resilience of Nigerians in the face of “despotism, drive towards anarchy and totalitarianism”.
The party called on Nigerians to use this year’s democracy celebration to reinforce commitment to rescue the nation and “restore democratic rule”.
“We are collectively strengthened by the fact that this year’s Democracy Day signals the reinvigorating of that democratic march by the citizens to end APC’s misrule and abuse of our rights.
“Nigerians must therefore, use this year’s occasion to reinforce their commitment to rescue our nation by restoring democratic rule on the platform of the repositioned PDP, come 2019.”
