• Friday, March 29, 2024
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2023: APC tackles Jega for asking Nigerians not to vote for party again

Attahiru-Jega

The proverb: ‘what is good for the goose is good for the gander’ has been given new meaning by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as it said former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega was wrong to have asked Nigerians not to vote for APC but right to have asked them to do same for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Jega, who made the call in a BBC Hausa programme on Monday, alleged that the two major political parties in the country were like Siamese twins of corruption and Nigerians should not vote for them in the forthcoming 2023 general election.

“The bad things these parties have committed in those past years,Nigerians should never give their trust to the parties again.It is now very clear that these parties would never change,even if they are given another chance”, he said.

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But in its reaction, APC said while the Professor of Political Science is right about PDP, a party under which he served as the Chairman of the nation’s election management body, it rejected his comparison of the APC with the PDP.

The ruling party in a statement by its National Secretary, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), John-James Akpanudoedehe said Jega got his facts wrong and mixed up in his baseless comparison of the PDP with the APC.

Akpanudoedehe argued that while the PDP failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians as a government and opposition party, the APC is thriving, healthy and assiduously cleaning the massive mess left behind by the PDP which failed to deliver democratic dividends to the people of Nigeria after being in charge of the country for 16 years.

“While we do not intend to join issues with Professor Jega, we encourage him to engage in genuine scholarly research and come up with evidence-based conclusions on the progessive orientation of the APC.

“It is however instructive to note that having recently abandoned his academic pursuit and blindly plunged into the arena of PDP’s brand of politics, the erstwhile electoral umpire as a politician can make such political statements occasionally while trying to launch his political career in a mushroom political party.

“The APC is a strong, united, popular and focused political unit. Hence, the Professor should note the political lesson that maligning the APC would not provide him a springboard to achieve his desires. Nigerians are wiser and remain the ultimate judges”, he stated.