The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to address Nigerians on the occasion of the 2018 Democracy Day on Tuesday.
The PDP, said that such address is not needed as it has been three years that such addresses had contained deceits, falsifications and unfulfilled promises.
The party noted that Nigerians have become frustrated and despondent by the magnitude of lies and deception told by the Buhari Presidency and the APC and would prefer to spend the next twelve calendar months contending with such past deceptions than fresh falsifications.
In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP added that the Buhari Presidency and the APC had, since assuming power in 2015, violated all tenets of democracy, trampled on citizens rights and should not be associated with democracy under any guise whatsoever.
The party maintained that the Buhari-led 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.
It equally stated that instead of celebrating Democracy, Nigerians are today groaning in regret for electing an administration that has completely turned against them, engaging in clampdown with utmost impunity, setting aside our constitutional provisions and desecrating all democratic established institutions.
“We ask: How can Nigerians celebrate Democracy Day when the rights of citizens are daily trampled and they no longer enjoy their freedom to politically associate and aspire, as was the order under the PDP rule?
” Where is democracy when government tends towards military fiat: where citizens are wantonly arrested, locked up and dehumanized just for expressing political opinions considered to be at variance with views held those in power?
” Where is democracy when opposition members have become endangered species and considered enemies of the state without any just cause; Where dissenting voices are daily harassed, arrested, handcuffed and arraigned on trumped-up charges, just to emasculate opposition?
“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 dehumanized; 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?
“Nigerians now look back with nostalgia to the 16 years of the PDP, years when government operated with conscience, where democracy was nurtured and the rights, freedom, happiness and prosperity of all citizens were guaranteed and upheld.
The party also saluted the courage and resilience of Nigerians in the face of despotism, drive towards anarchy and totalitarianism.
It said: “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”
The party urged Nigerians to use this year’s occasion to reinforce their commitment to rescue the nation by restoring democratic rule on the platform of the repositioned PDP, come 2019.
