PDP lacks vision to solve Nigeria’s problems - AC

THE Action Congress (AC) has asserted that Nigerians should show the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government the way out, saying that it lacked the vision to take Nigeria out of the woods.

The party said the administrations of the PDP were only out to impoverish the people and cause further damage to the battered image of the nation.

In a New Year message signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, the party asked the people to take their destiny in their hands and push hard for electoral and constitutional reforms in the New Year to guarantee a free and fair election in 2011.

The party promised to continue with the struggle to ensure that Nigerians could freely elect those who would govern them, as well as put the government on its toes through constructive criticism.

It urged Nigerians not to delude themselves that the Federal Government would alleviate their sufferings or lift the country from the abyss to which it had fallen in the past 10 years of its rule.

It added that “we live in very dangerous times. Things have never been so bad for Nigerians and democracy has never been so threatened as it has been in recent times, when the country has become rudderless and the so-called ruling party has all but gone to bed.

“But we must remind Nigerians of the saying that heaven helps those who help themselves. It is up to our people, victims of the total collapse of governance by the PDP-led Federal Government, to shake off the yoke of bad governance.”

It observed that the issues thrown up by the lingering sickness of President Yar’Adua underscored the urgency of the review of the 1999 Constitution.

Taking a retrospective view of 2009, the party stated that there was no doubt that it ranked as one of the worst for Nigeria, adding that certain events in the year further justified public negative perception of the rebranding campaign.

“Let’s start from the most recent of the events that made 2009 the year we will rather forget. The failed attack on a US passenger jetliner by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has dragged our nation into the ranks of emerging terrorist hotbeds to be kept at an arms length by the international community.

The AC also commented on political events in the outgone year, saying that “on the political scene, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)/PDP’s siamese twin in election rigging and vote manipulation showed in the Ekiti governorship rerun that it is almost irredeemable.

“The rerun was worse than the original election whose result was challenged by our party. It was a missed opportunity for Nigeria to show it is ready to depart from the part of failed elections!’’ AC said

The party said the only success achieved by the Yar’Adua-led administration after much confusion, the amnesty programme which has succeeded in restoring peace to the Niger Delta, was in the process of unravelling.