The Presidency yesterday said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) cannot afford to make family the issue for next year’s general elections.
It also noted that the PDP is engaging in mud-slinging because it finds it easier than speaking on “their despicable 16-year record in the course of which they abused the trust of Nigerians.”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, told reporters in Abuja that the APC will welcome the opposition PDP should it decide to make family the issue in the coming elections.
Reacting to various comments by several organs of the opposition party on remarks made by the President on views publicly expressed by his wife, Aisha in an interview, the presidential spokesman described the questions raised of the President in regard to his wife as an own goal against the PDP.
He said: “The PDP leadership cannot afford to make family an issue in this campaign. Need I say more? The only thing I want to add is that PDP is engaging in mud-slinging because it finds it easier than speaking on their despicable 16-year record in the course of which they abused the trust of Nigerians.”
Shehu also pointed: “President Buhari is on mission to correct the past mistakes of the PDP. The PDP made a mess of everything, including the economy, security and infrastructure. It has come to the destiny of President Muhammadu Buhari to correct their mistakes.
“The PDP doesn’t see anything beyond grabbing power, power at all costs. As an opposition party, they have failed. They have remained disconnected with the masses of our people. It is an irony that a party that boasted as being the largest in Africa is now begging small parties for alliances.
“Even if they get all those paper parties behind them, they will still fail. A presidential contest is more than the issuance of daily press releases containing falsehoods.
“They have launched a campaign for the presidency, a campaign that has failed to get any traction. PDP members are themselves admitting that the campaign hadn’t made a good start, that attendance at rallies had unarguably been thin. The whole thing is not working; that President Buhari is unstoppable.”
He added: “Rather than a so-called cabal, an imaginary creation attached to all past governments of the country, President Buhari is remotely-controlled by the 200 million-plus Nigerian people whose interest is uppermost in everything he says and does.
“The PDP doesn’t have the strength and support to fight President Buhari. They don’t have the records in security, economy and the war against corruption to mount any meaningful challenge.
“They have no records of accomplishments in infrastructure. In the 16 years they held sway, they have nothing to show for the colossal oil revenues earned, including $16 billion doled upfront from the Central Bank oF Nigeria (CBN) for power, without a single megawatt to show for all that money. That is why they are dragging the President’s wife into their politics,” he said
