PDP’s planned conference to focus on security, electoral reforms

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said arrangements were on top gear for its planned conference on how to salvage Nigeria and return it to the path of peace, national cohesiveness and economic prosperity.

The opposition party hinted that security, economy, electoral reforms and other essentials of national stability were on the front burner as the party had already commenced consultations with critical stakeholders across board on ways to rescue the country from misrule through institutional reforms ahead of the 2023 general elections.

National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, disclosed the position of the party while receiving the British High Commission’s Political Counsellor on Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Jonathan Bacon, at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Friday.

Secondus lamented that Nigeria was in her present sorry situation because all the electoral reforms achieved by the PDP to deepen democracy prior to 2015 general election had been destroyed by the current All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.

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“For five and half years now that the APC held sway, our democracy has been under severe stress. All critical institutions of democracy have been brutalized. The judiciary, legislature and the media have been under siege while human rights and rule of law; the necessary ingredients of democracy have all been flagrantly abused.

“Though the APC administration came into power as a beneficiary of a transparent and credible election conducted under the PDP, it has not been able to conduct any free and fair election but had rather continued to abuse our electoral process and frustrate the desires and efforts of Nigerians to further amend our Electoral Act to guarantee acceptable elections in our country,” Secondus stated.

He expressed worry on the escalating insecurity in the country under the APC and the lack of commitment on the path of the current administration to decisively tackle the outlaws and end the mindless killings, bloodletting, kidnapping, banditry and other acts of terrorism in the country.

Secondus lamented that the security situation had reached a despondent curve where critical stakeholders were now calling on the people to defend themselves in the face of government’s failure to defend them.

The national chairman noted that the present administration had plunged the nation into the worst economic hardship, which had been exacerbated by the incompetence and lack of clear-cut policy direction, insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians and unprecedented corruption of the APC administration.

He, however, commended the international community and development partners for their support, especially in strengthening the electoral system, urging them to show more interest in Nigeria democracy ahead of 2023 general elections.

Bacon had earlier told Secondus that he was in the Wadata Plaza to meet with the leadership of the PDP and discuss the United Kingdom/Nigeria bilateral relations.