PDP: Why Buhari, APC must learn from US election crisis

By Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have lessons to learn on how the democratic institutions in the United States checkmated attempts by President Donald Trump to truncate democracy in that country.

The party said the triumph of the democratic institutions in the US, over plans by President Trump to abort the country’s presidential election, has reinforced the demands by Nigerians on the Buhari administration to allow democratic institutions in Nigeria to function.

Trump, who lost the November 2020 presidential election, had attempted to destroy the sanctity of the ballot by instigating violent attacks on democratic institutions, including American Congress.

In a statement on Friday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party noted that the US election served as a strong lesson to corrupt and power-drunk leaders.

It added that no matter how desperate such leaders seek to manipulate the system, the will of the people and the constitution will always prevail in the end.

The PDP asserted that the insistence of the US judiciary and the legislature to uphold the provisions of their nation’s constitution, especially in resisting Trump who are desperate to hold on to office even after losing an election, has reinforced the triumph of the collective will of a people through their system.

The main opposition party however, regretted that the reverse was the case during the 2019 presidential election, reiterating the accusation that President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) subverted the popular will of the people.

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The PDP said, “Whereas our institutions of democracy including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies were brazenly manipulated by the APC in the 2019 elections, the United States experience strengthens the determination by Nigerians to stand up against such manipulations ahead of 2023.

“The PDP therefore calls on all Nigerians including compatriots in INEC, the judiciary, the legislature, security forces, faith-based organizations, the media, civil society groups and other political parties to join forces with our party in the quest to reposition and strengthen our institutions for the task ahead.

“It is instructive to state that this is the only way to reposition our nation on the path of good governance, political stability, national cohesion and economic prosperity.

“Never again should individuals be allowed to manipulate our system, denigrate our constitution, lie to and incite unsuspecting citizens, promote violence, division and killings; compromise our security agencies, invade our courts and intimidate our judiciary, assault our National Assembly and trample on our laws, all in their inordinate bid to foist their selfish political interests.

“There is no overstressing the fact that but for the strong institutions put in place by patriotic leaders of the United States, that nation would have been thrown into terrible turmoil or succumb to a chaotic order that would have no regard for the law and the will of the people”.

The party urged the Buhari administration to check tendencies that weaken the nation’s institutions and encourage the manipulation of security, judiciary, legislative and electoral bodies.

“Mr. President should take steps to ensure reforms that would strengthen our system, including ending all acts of nepotism in appointments into such sensitive institutions.

“The American example equally underpins the demand for public officers, particularly the APC leadership in the National Assembly, to begin to pay greater loyalty to our country and her interest over the parochial interest of their party or the executive arm.

“The patriotism displayed by American Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, in rejecting the attempt to undermine their nation’s electoral system is a direct call on APC leaders in the National Assembly against the unpatriotic practice of putting narrow partisan interests above the national interest.

“Moreover, the APC must stop being a community of people with common selfish interest and desperation for personal enrichment, who are not ready to stand up for the truth in the face of acts of injustice, deprivation and callousness against the Nigerian people and our constitutional order,” the statement added.