Professor Attahiru Jega, the former Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), has urged Nigerians not to vote for the All Progressives Congress ( APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in the 2023 general election.
This is because, in his opinion, the two major parties are like Siamese twins when it comes to corruption, and it was past time for Nigerians to seek a viable alternative.
“Nigerians should reject the two parties because of their poor precedents over the previous 20 years,” the Professor of Political Science said on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa show on Monday.
“Given their inability to improve Nigeria’s economic fortunes over the last two decades, it is now evident that they would accomplish nothing, even if Nigerians vote for either of the two parties again,” he claimed.
“Given the wrongdoings of these parties in recent years, Nigerians should never put their confidence in them again. Even if given another chance, it is clearly apparent that these parties will never change.
“We were all present when the APC and PDP became governments. They didn’t show up with the aim of making apologies. When it comes to the battle against corruption, all of the corrupt individuals who were meant to be prosecuted snuck into the APC.
“We haven’t heard anything.
As a result, I have now joined the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP)..
I’ve joined the PRP and am searching for ways to assist Nigeria.
“That is why we feel the time has come to create a platform where any decent Nigerian can join and contribute to putting the country on the right track,” he added.
Jega further claimed that people in power in the main parties had ruined everything and stigmatized the parties to the point that any good person who joined them would be regarded the same as them.
He added, “It has now become necessary to establish a fresh platform where good Nigerians would make up the membership.”
He also said that Nigeria’s current issues are the result of a lack of effective leadership, which has resulted in a succession of calls for the country to be divided.
“I’ve been teaching at the institution since 1979, a total of 40 years. So, based on what I read and saw when Chairman of INEC, the way I see our politicians conducting elections and representing their constituents when elected, it is something to be frightened of,” he added.
Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, working via the National Secretary Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) APC, stated in a statement that Jega’s decision lacked academic study and was not evidence-based.
The APC claimed Jega was mistaken when he suggested the current party, like its predecessor in government, the PDP, had failed to satisfy Nigerians’ aspirations.
While the PDP has failed to satisfy Nigerians’ expectations as a government and opposition party, the APC is flourishing, healthy, and actively cleaning up the huge mess left behind by the PDP, which has failed to provide democratic dividends to the people of Nigeria after 16 years in power.
“While Professor Jega is correct in his assessment of the PDP, the party for which he served as Chairman of the nation’s election administration body, we reject his comparison of the APC to the PDP. In his unfounded comparison of the PDP and the APC, Professor Jega got his facts incorrect and jumbled up.
“While we do not want to disagree with Professor Jega on any topics, we do urge him to do real scholarly study and draw evidence-based conclusions about the APC’s Progressive stance.
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“However, it is instructive to note that, having recently abandoned his academic pursuit and blindly entered the arena of PDP’s brand of politics, the former electoral umpire as a politician can occasionally make such political statements while attempting to launch his political career in a mushroom political party.
“The APC is a powerful, well-organized, popular, and well-focused political force. As a result, the Professor should take heed of the political lesson that smearing the APC would not help him achieve his goals. Nigerians are smarter and continue to be the final arbiters.”
The PDP warned Jega not to anger Nigerians any more by attempting to explain why it labeled the APC “rudderless, incompetent, and debauched,” despite the “unbearable destruction” the party had brought to the country in just six years.
The PDP claimed in a statement released Monday by Kola Ologbondiyan, its national publicity secretary, that comparing “the incompetent and decadent APC to the highly productive and development-oriented PDP is an unpardonable disservice to our nation and calls into question Profession Jega’s sense of judgment.”
Prof. Jega, who recently and correctly described the APC and the Buhari administration as failures, “is now attempting an image laundering with such a warped comparison, just a few weeks after he was offered a juicy appointment as Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Jos by President Buhari,” according to the PDP.
“It is really sad that Professor Jega, as a political science professor, could show an ignorance of the obvious differences between our nation’s healthy fortunes under the PDP and the wasteland she has become under the APC,” the PDP said.
“Perhaps the professor needs to be reminded of how the PDP worked hard to revamp our nation’s economy, pay off our massive foreign debts, and go on to grow the economy to become Africa’s largest investment hub as well as one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with a Fitch B+ rating; only for the APC to wreck the economy and turn our country into the world’s poverty capital and a de facto de facto de facto de facto de facto de facto de
Professor Jega should also be reminded of how the PDP re-energized the private sector, with new firms and jobs popping up in vital areas including as telecoms, aviation, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, education, retailing, hospitality, healthcare, and banking, to name a few.
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“Today, under the APC and Buhari, these gains have been squandered, with over 60 million Nigerians losing their means of livelihood, an alarming 33.3 percent unemployment rate, and over 82.9 million more people and about 25 million families unable to afford their daily meals, as our country ranks 98th out of 107 in the Global Hunger Index, due to the obnoxious policies of the APC and Buhari.
“Perhaps the former INEC chairman has forgotten how the PDP stabilized our fiscal economy by handing over our naira to the APC at N160 to the dollar, only for the APC to devalue it to a pitiful N510 to the dollar.
“He might also forget that the PDP handed over the cost of petroleum at N87 per liter, and the APC raised it to N165 per liter, putting strain on our economy.”
As a result, the PDP invited Professor Jega to speak about “how the PDP ran an all-inclusive and transparent administration that guaranteed freedom of speech, equity, fairness, and free and fair elections, which he attested to; and how the APC had been running a massively corrupt, insensitive, divisive, and exclusionist administration that has destroyed our national cohesion and turned our country into a war zone, which he attested to; and how the APC had been running
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