Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman-elect of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), says the opposition party must move beyond issuing
“occasional press statements”.
He said the party must demonstrate to Nigerians that it is
ready to rebuild the country.
Speaking on Tuesday at an event organised for the newly
elected officers of the party, Ayu said the PDP must thoughtfully articulate
and design a clear programme of what it intends to achieve for the country.
“This is a very auspicious moment in the life of our party.
It is not often that we get to assemble this way for deep thinking and exchange
of ideas on the way forward for our party and our country, a country that has
been badly brutalised, robbed and traumatised in the past six years plus,” the
former senator said.
“Our country is in
very deep trouble so we have a duty, and Nigerians expect us, to rescue and
rebuild the country.
“We must be more than a party that just issues the occasional
press statement condemning the APC government. We must demonstrate to Nigerians
that years in opposition have not dented our will and desire to win and to
govern for the benefit of our country. Nigerians look up to us to reunite this
country which has been badly divided over the past 6 years. Nigerians want to
see that we are united and ready to govern.
“That is why the theme of this retreat is very apt. Surely
Nigeria needs rescuing and rebuilding. The damage done by the APC is pretty
obvious — insecurity everywhere, including shared sovereignty with criminal and
terrorist gangs, a collapsed economy with a comatose manufacturing sector,
soaring prices, naira near worthless, interest rates very high, with the
Central Bank of Nigeria picking and choosing winners and losers and virtually
running a parallel government.
“We must offer a
clear, workable alternative to rebuild our country. Just recently the US
Council on Foreign Relations published a study by two experts which said
Nigeria is, already a failed state that has reached a point of no return and
would collapse. That is where the APC government has brought us to. We need not
waste our energy arguing whether the American researchers are right or not.
Rather, we should focus our energies, imagination and creativity towards
ensuring that their prognosis does not come to pass. We must work to reverse
that march towards collapse.”
Ayu said no other party is better equipped to rescue and
transform Nigeria than the PDP, adding that “we have to rebuild Nigeria to
become a fertile ground for our young people and other entrepreneurs to unleash
their creativity and innovativeness consumer spending”.
“Let us rebuild Nigeria as a country that does not treat any
of its peoples as second-class citizens. We have to rebuild Nigeria to provide
education for all its citizens. We have to rebuild a Nigeria that secures its
borders and protects its law-abiding citizens wherever in the country they may
live, whatever their occupation and whatever their language, religion or
ethnicity,” he said.
“We have to rebuild Nigeria with roads, bridges, and
railways that crisscross and connect different parts of this country to
facilitate and promote the movement of people and goods to grow our economy.”
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