WHAT EXACTLY HAS PDP DONE IN THE LAST 15 YEARS?
For 15 years, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been in the face of Nigerians at the centre as well as in more than 18 states, with well over 470 local government areas to boot. Now the Party recently announced that it was embarking on a publicity tour to showcase what its public office holders have done, what they are doing and what they plan to do. This venture promises to be an interesting one, what with the publicity machinery of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the chief spectator.
Apparently knowing that Lai Mohammed and his band of APC spokesmen will pick up the gauntlet, PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh threw a few punches their way. He pointed out that while millions of Nigerians continue to enjoy the benefits of having the PDP in power and showing that by subsequently returning the party to power four times in the past, the opposition has never stopped throwing tar at the ruling Party PDP.
Though Metuh has promised not to be distracted by the diatribes of Lai and co., it will be a unique Nigerian wonder of this generation of democracy if the PDP can ignore the belligerent pack in the APC.
If the PDP tour is intended to cover the four years that Jonathan has been in the saddle, then the APC will have to cook up something to show that it can do better than the Ijaw man. This is because it (APC) has not had a taste of power at the centre, and in those places where it has held on to power in the states and in the local councils, it is matched, if not outmatched in many instances, by the PDP Governors and council operatives.
Lagos may stand out because of Babatunde Fashola, but then Godswill Akpabio has distinguished himself in Akwa Ibom State. At the federal level, the APC or its forebears, has never tasted power there, so there is no basis for comparison. Political watchers may, however, surmise that with the nature of the opposition party, it would have done more damage to the Nigerian system than help it. However, if the PDP takes its publicity stunt to cover its 15 years in power at the centre, then it is a foregone conclusion that it would dwarf the APC in every department of the game. Perhaps, what the APC may have to do to get its whispers heard would be recourse to its usual pattern of belligerency.
According to Metuh, to silence the opposition drum-beaters who are wondering why the President was roundly endorsed by organs of the Party as its sole candidate, the PDP would respond in a unique way that entailed a “comprehensive nationwide PDP Performance Tour to visit and publicize all projects executed by all PDP elected and appointed officials at the federal, state and local government levels in all the sectors of the economy since 1999, including constituency projects and interventions using special bodies such as NDDC, PTDF, CBN, SURE-P, etc.”Wielding his peppery tar brush, Metuh took a swipe at the APC which has been passing off PDP achievements as its own.
“Also, in states formerly controlled by the PDP, such as Edo, Rivers, Nasarawa, Kano, Sokoto, Kwara, among others, the opposition parties in control are now laying claims to our projects. This tour will 'recover' our projects claimed by the opposition and return the credit to the PDP,” he declared.
He continued: “This is in addition to constituency projects by federal and state lawmakers, which were mobilized by the PDP-led Federal Government as well as the rapid growth in the private sector owing to our well articulated reform policies and programmes in key sectors including banking, power, communication, aviation, transport, commerce and industry, retailing, agriculture, housing, etc making our nation one of the fastest growing economies in the world.”
Maintaining that the tour will be a comprehensive sector-by-sector appraisal of the party's public office holders in the last 15 years, Metuh said it was going to be different in content and style from the Labaran Maku-led Good Governance Tour. How? “While the Good Governance Tour focused on the projects executed by the Federal Government under the current dispensation, the PDP Publicity Tour focuses on all projects executed by PDP elected or appointed officials at the federal, state, local government and ward levels since 1999,” he answered.
Again, read Metuh: “Apart from the massive infrastructure development being witnessed across board, it is incontrovertible that the private sector has immensely flourished in the last three years owing to the continued implementation of our manifesto and policies including the PDP ideology of transfer of wealth from public institutions to the private sector, allowing hard working private individuals to thrive in manufacturing, aviation, housing, banking, telecoms, food processing, hospitality, education, transport, construction, oil and gas among others.
“The leap in the nation's economy has been acknowledged by the world community. The Fitch Ratings which affirmed Nigeria's long-term foreign and local currency IDRs, the senior unsecured bond and Short-term foreign currency IDR ratings respectively at 'BB's and the rebasing of our economy which placed it as the 26th largest economy in the world, and the largest economy in Africa, ahead of South Africa attest to this.'
Stopping short of describing the APC in the Janjaweed toga he bought for it, Metuh noted that the PDP achievements in recent times were in spite of very serious security challenges facing the present administration especially, the insurgency in the north. He may have been right when he categorically stated that no other political party in the country would have maintained democracy in the face of such stiff distractions. The advantage of the PDP in this area stems from its rainbow background that includes Nigerians of every shade and leaning fitting together into a harmonious symphony. So, let them see and know about the performance of their Party nationwide. This is why the PDP performance tour of the country to publicise the achievements of the PDP Government is in apple-pie order.
Written by Francis Ehigiator.