The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says that Nigerians will firmly resist any candidate presented by the President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election.
This was made known in a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba.
PDP also berated the President for dwelling on false figures and bogus performance claims in his Channels Television interview.
The PDP said the “false figures” given by the President only reinforces the fact that no one in the APC is immune to lying.
The statement read in part, “In his ludicrous attempt to rationalise his failures in office, President Buhari falsely claimed that under the PDP, from 1999 to 2014, crude oil sold for an average of $100 per barrel but collapsed to $37 per barrel when he and his APC assumed office.
“Such false claims fly in the face of hard fact as the records, which the President must have, clearly show that when the PDP took office on May 29, 1999, crude oil sold at $16.27 per barrel and about $80.42 and $63.28 by November and December 2014 respectively.
“Under President Buhari and the APC, the oil price has never fallen as low as $16 per barrel as recorded under the PDP but started at $37 to $39.44 per barrel in 2016 and has continued to hover between $60 and $70 per barrel to date.
“President Buhari should have seized the opportunity provided by Channels Television to show remorse, apologise to Nigerians for his monumental failure and national embarrassment that the APC government represents instead of trying to rationalise APC’s failures with falsehood and grandstanding about a successor.
“The mindset of Mr President as exhibited in the Channels TV interview confirms the fears of Nigerians that the APC does not believe in democratic practice and is determined to manipulate the 2023 election by all means.
“That explains their desperation to scuttle the Electoral Act Amendment Bill provision for electronic transmission of election results, which will effectively truncate the APC’s plans to rig the 2023 election.”