By ‘Dotun Akintomide
The advice by All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, urging former Presidents of the country to quit politics and join the retirees’ club, should go to President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s mainstream opposition, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has said.
The party stated that Tinubu’s counsel vindicates the positions of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, the PDP as well as majority of Nigerians, who think President Buhari should not seek re-election in 2019.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Wednesday, PDP said: “Asiwaju Tinubu is proverbially passing a message to President Buhari and his supporters on the fact that their candidate no longer enjoy mass acceptance among Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“Every discerning Nigerian has discovered the fact that Asiwaju Tinubu is subtly passing a critical message to President Buhari and his supporters that he should not contest the 2019 election and that Nigerians have already moved on even without them.
“Even Asiwaju Tinubu knows that President Buhari, for obvious reasons, is the most qualified of all our elder statesmen to join the retiree’s club and save the nation the agony of more years of misrule characterized by untold economic hardship, heavy bloodletting and general indignation.
“The supporters of President Buhari should therefore accept the reality by reading the handwriting on the wall and heed wise counsel from well- meaning Nigerians.
“In any case, the APC is already on a death throe, having led the worst government in the history of our nation and will end up as the first party in government at the centre that will be rejected by Nigerians at a second attempt.
“It is to this end that the repositioned PDP has opened its doors to all in the patriotic quest to end the APC misrule by ensuring a new engagement among Nigerians from all walks of life.
“The PDP, through our platform, will enable Nigerians the opportunity of bringing up a dynamic and result-oriented Presidential candidate imbued with the required capacity and who understands the dynamics of growing a prosperous nation of our collective dream.”
