PDP Has Failed The Nation –ACN

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN has slammed the People’s Democratic Party, PDP for  failing the nation and overheating the polity, as usual, with a series of faux pas in the  aftermath of the unfortunate bomb blasts in Abuja during the country’s 50th independence  anniversary celebrations.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai  Mohammed, the party said instead of rallying Nigerians behind the President, as it is  done in other climes in times of national tragedies, PDP members threw caution to the  winds and turned the President to a butt of jokes around the world with the call on him  to resign or be impeached.

It said the call is a fallout of the dangerous internal wranglings within the PDP over  who flies the party’s flag in next year’s presidential poll.

‘’At at a time that the opposition has maintained a dignified stance, it is within the  PDP – a house divided against itself – that an ultimatum has been issued to the President  to resign or be impeached! Had the call been made by the opposition, it might have been  understood. But coming from within the PDP? It is obvious that this party has collapsed  hence it is incapable of providing leadership to the country,’’ ACN said.

The party said never in the history of Nigeria has a political party been so divided  against itself or threatened national unity as the PDP is doing presently, no thanks to  the intractable zoning issue that has now split Nigeria along ethnic and geographic lines  perhaps more than at any other time in its history.

‘’Even the usually-cohesive north is now sharply splintered over the lingering issue of  zoning, hence the discordant tunes over whether or not President Jonathan is capable of  leading the country. This is unfortunate.

‘’But it is not the first time this is happening. Right from the third term misadventure  of former President Olusegun Obasanjo through the national debate on whether then VP  Jonathan should take over as Acting President while his boss undergoes medical treatment  in Saudi Arabia to the zoning imbroglio, it has been one discord tune after another  within the PDP, the largest agglomeration of strange bedfellows in the world.

‘’Now, with general elections around the corner, the PDP has again behaved true to type,  allowing its internal wranglings to threaten national peace and unity. Individual  interests have overridden national interests, with dangerous consequences.’’ ACN said.  ‘’The internal problems of the PDP will ordinarily not concern us but for the fact that  it is now threatening national peace and security.’’

It warned that the in-fighting within the PDP must not be allowed to stifle the  investigations into the Abuja bombings, since unraveling the cause and perpetrators of  the deadly explosions will help in preventing a recurrence.

ACN also said President Jonathan must refrain from making comments that could be  misconstrued to mean that he wanted to divert attention from the real culprits or point  accusing fingers at his political opponents.

‘’At times like this, a president must always act presidential. Visiting the victims of  the blasts, for example, is a presidential act. Jumping to  conclusion on who is  responsible is unpresidential, and the fallout is the issue of the presidency’s  credibility triggered by Henry Okah’s  allegation that he was approached by a  presidential aide to prevail on MEND to withdraw its claim of responsibility for the  blasts,’’ the  party said.