Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that rather than he
owing the ruling PDP, it was the party that owes him a debt of gratitude.
He was reacting to a statement made by the National Publicity Secretary of
PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh who said Atiku owes the party a debt of gratitude for
providing him a political platform that saw his emergence as the former Vice
President.
But the former Vice President said over the weekend that contrary to the
claims by the leadership of PDP, it was indeed his erstwhile political party
that owes a debt of thanks to him.
The former Vice President, who resigned his membership of the PDP in February
this year, noted that the insinuation being peddled by Metuh, that he is
ungrateful to the PDP is a distortion of history.
The statement particularly noted that neither Metuh, nor anyone currently in
position of authority in the PDP today was there when the PDP was being
formed.
“If the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP doesn’t have the knowledge of
how the party came into being, then it will be in order that he goes into the
archives and read about the history of the party and the roles certain
individuals, particularly former Vice President Atiku Abubakar played in
building the party.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar does not owe a debt to the PDP.
Rather it is the PDP that owes a debt of thanks to him. Where were Metuh and his
paymasters when the PDP was in its formative stage? If he and his paymasters
came as free riders into the party, that shouldn’t mean they have the license to
distort history.
“The demagogic outburst and the repeated innuendoes by which the PDP has been
nursing its wounds following the exit of its founding fathers will do no good
for the party to reverse the trend of how it is fast losing acceptability by the
Nigerian people,” Atiku said.
According to him, Metuh and his co-travellers in the PDP should focus more on
improving the lives of citizens, redressing the parlous state of the nation’s
economy and stemming the state of insecurity that pervades the land instead of
distorting history.
“Nigerians need good governance. They need to be told how the only country we
all call home can be safe for each and every one of us. Nigerians need a
political party that will work on the parlous state of the country’s economy and
restore financial confidence to Nigerians who work hard to support their
families. The youths of Nigeria need a political party that can give them a
direction to the future.
“There are very many challenges besetting the country today and it will be
incongruous that a political party in government will ignore these challenges
and continue to vituperate over individuals who have deserted its fold to join
forces with a political party better suited to provide solutions to the myriad
of problems confronting the country,” Atiku said.
The former Vice President used the opportunity to commiserate with the
government and people Kaduna, Benue, Katsina and Borno states following the
recent spate of senseless killings in their states
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