CAN NIGERIANS EVER FORGIVE THE PDP?

At a public discourse which was organized by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja on Monday the 26th of March 2018, the party’s chairman, chief Uche Secondus publicly apologized to Nigerians about what he described as the mistakes that were made by the party in the past and that Nigerians should forgive them (PDP) because now they have learnt their lessons.

He went further to plead with Nigerians to give them a second chance to correct their mistakes by stating that ‘experience is the best teacher’.

It is a common saying that “To err is human, to forgive is divine”; how easy or uneasy will it be for Nigerians to forgive this party that once pride itself as ‘the largest political party in Africa’ especially taking into cognizance the fact that PDP only asked for forgiveness, they did not confess their sins (many of which resulted in the deaths of many Nigerians). You may be tempted to ask that, what did the Peoples Democratic Party do so badly that will make Nigerians feel reluctant in forgiving the party.

Returning from the ‘not too good journey’ of the military era, Nigerians handed over the baton of leadership to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 with the hope that ‘everything good will come’.  But then, PDP desperately and forcefully held on to power for 16 years while driving the nation round a circle. A circle that was adorned with poverty, corruption, insecurity, unemployment and every other underdevelopment index you can think of. Lack of internal party democracy within the party gave birth to the sad culture of imposition and impunity in our democratic system. The executive arms of government (the president and the state governors became) what can be described as ‘civilian generals’.

The electoral system was muscled and boxed to the corner up to the extent that election results were decided even before the commencement of voting while winners in elections were decided at dinner tables. The national assembly was a rubber stamp of the president who often decided who will become the senate president or speaker of the house of representatives. Under the 16 years of PDP, corruption was no longer a crime as many government officials stole with pride.

Despite the huge revenue both from the oil and non oil sectors that the country earned under the 16 years of the PDP, the country remained ‘richly poor’ and underdeveloped. The party wasted sixteen years of our future without providing stable power  supply (despite spending millions of dollars on ghost power projects), no functioning rail system for a modern capital like Abuja. Under the watch of the PDP. Boko haram emanated as one of the deadliest terrorist group in the world.

Under their watch, the military massacred an entire community (Udi) in Bayelsa state. Under their watch, the military invaded and killed hundreds of villagers in (Zaki Biam) Benue state. The PDP also committed a great sin against the people of cross rivers state and Nigeria when they handed over our territory, the oil rich Bakasi Peninsula to Cameroon without a proper resettlement plan for the indigenes thereby rendering them stateless.

We can go on and on mentioning the sins that were committed by the Peoples Democratic Party without having a course to take a halt, but let me withdraw the noisy mouth of my pen here.

Though the PDP deed committed a lot of sins against Nigeria and Nigerians, but they have come forth to apologies and plead for forgiveness. The onus is now on Nigerians to decide if the party deserves forgiveness or not considering the fact that the current party in power has performed way bellow the expectations of many Nigerians.

 2019 General elections are almost here and that is when the PDP will know if Nigerians have forgiven them or not.
While we wait for the judgment day, let’s remain patriotic Nigerians by going out there to get our voters card.