The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has knocked President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for heating up the polity with “procured endorsements” of the president’s 2027 re-election bid.
The party described the gale of endorsements of Tinubu’s re-election as a panic move, saying the administration is haunted by its anti people policies.
The PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, in an interactive session with reporters in Abuja on Monday, said it’s unfortunate that President Tinubu has abandoned governance for campaign.
According to him, a performing administration need not procure endorsements the way the APC is doing for the President, stressing that only a failed government behaves that way.
Ologunagba said, “The reason for this behaviour is because the APC and President Tinubu are jittery. That’s why they are campaigning less than two years to the next election.
“They now calibrate to a new level where what they do is to get panicky and begin to do what I call endorsement shopping. The President and APC are looking for endorsement.
“If indeed the President is doing well and the APC is succeeding, you let your work speak for you. You don’t want to say come and endorse me. So it is panic mode.
“The fact is that they are not doing well, they have failed and they recognise that Nigerians truly know that this APC has failed the country.
“Endorsement is not on the pages of newspapers. Endorsement is in the people, but the people cannot feed their families. When the school season resumes, people start panicking and people are complaining because they can’t even pay school fees.”
The PDP spokesman said the APC adminstartion has piled additional burden on the people with the five percent petroleum tax.
Ologunagba said the five percent petroleum tax, which will come into effect in January 2026, has put Nigerians in a panic mode.
“That can’t be governance, but that is exactly what we have today. But thank God the PDP is back, fully set, taking the national convention as its platform to launch itself back.
“Nigeria and Nigerians are waiting eagerly for PDP and that’s why each time we speak they are excited. They are anxious to get us back to where we are,” he added.
The spokesman said the PDP has been recalibrating and putting its acts together, a development he said, has triggered fear in the ruling party and its leaders.
Ologunagba deplored what he termed premature campaign by the APC, saying that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed frustration over the actions of the ruling party.
“INEC has expressed frustration over this early campaign that is heating up the polity. So INEC, as regulators, are worried.
“The panic mode of the APC government at the present, is a sign of a failed government. That you know that your policy is not working, and you say let’s spin it, let’s gaslight it. This is not working because Nigerians have seen through it.
“So all the endorsements, all the shopping endorsements amount to nothing. Let your work endorse you. Let your achievement endorse you.
“The Nigerian people should freely express their views and their wishes in the ballot box and that their votes should count.
“We want votes to count and to be counted, to reflect the wishes of the people. INEC should ensure that 2027 election results are transmitted electronically from the polling units.”
