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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as an “alliance of convenience” that will collapse after the party’s defeat in the 2023 election.
The former vice president stated this during the inauguration of the youth wing of the PDP’s presidential campaign council in Abuja, on Thursday.
Recall that the APC was a merger of three largest opposition parties– Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), led by former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu; Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) led by then General Muhammadu Buhari; and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) along with a breakaway faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP.
Atiku said the PDP being the oldest political party in Nigeria has over the years gained enough experience and grounds to sustain Nigeria’s democracy.
“You see, to be honest, PDP is the only party in this country. The APC is an alliance between CPC and Tinubu’s party. We are going to defeat them at the polls and then they will be dead. I do not see them survive after,” he said.
Atiku, however, urged the newly inaugurated National Youth Campaign Council, drawn from the six geo-political zones to take his message of hope down to the nooks and crannies of their wards and sell his agenda of resetting and rescuing Nigeria.
Speaking, the party’s vice presidential candidate and governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, said Nigeria is in distress in the hands of APC and in dire need of a “chief medical consultant” in the person of Atiku to revive it from coma.
He added that the task of reclaiming Nigeria from years of APC’s misrule rests squarely on the youths making the right choice by investing their future in the hands of Atiku, who he said has always spoken truth to them. He urged the youths to shun the pack of lies and deceit by the ruling party and its candidate.
The deputy national chairman (North) of the party, Ambassador Umar Damagum, who represented the party’s national chairman, Sen Iyorchia Ayu, also charged the youths to seize the opportunity offered by the PDP to create the kind of change they truly deserve, and urged them to eschew violence.
Those at the event inlcude Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Aminu Tambuwal, Deputy Director General (Operations) and former governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, member of the PDP Board of Trustees, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, among others.