Nigeria’s ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega to desist from attacking her as part of his schemes to burnish his political career.
APC in a statement by the National Secretary of its Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe was reacting to comments by Jega in which he compared the APC with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
Jega had described both parties as failures, urging Nigerians to switch their allegiances to his Peoples Redemption Party PRP which he said has the solutions to the nation’s myriads of challenges.
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The statement reads: ‘Our attention has been drawn to an uncontrolled, wrong and untenable political outburst by a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega in which he lumped the All Progressives Congress (APC), together with the failed People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
‘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 Professor Jega is right about the PDP, a party under which he served as the Chairman of the nation’s election management body, we reject his comparison of the APC with the PDP.
‘Professor Jega got his facts wrong and mixed up in his baseless comparison of the PDP with the APC.
‘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 progressive 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 with a springboard to achieve his desires. Nigerians are wiser and remain the ultimate judges’.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
