The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has described the flag off of the presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State on Monday as “a disaster waiting to happen”.

Tinubu said the absence of some PDP chieftains at the rally held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, showed that Nigerians would not vote for the main opposition party in the 2023 general election.

He said this via a statement issued on Monday by the spokesperson of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo.

The Star had reported that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his allies, Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, on Monday, failed to attend the flag off of the PDP presidential campaign.

Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, was also absent at the presidential campaign.

Reacting to the development, Keyamo, who is also the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, stated that the absence of the governors “tells a story to Nigerians that no amount of political jamboree can whitewash PDP’s cracked walls.”

The minister stated: “When you have a flag-off campaign that is shunned by the National Vice-Chairmen of the South-South, South-West, and five sitting Governors out of thirteen, that is a definitive and resounding red-flag that Nigerians should not vote the presidential candidate of the PDP in this coming election.

“If the people’s representatives at the state levels are so unanimouly against their party’s candidate that they would shun his campaign launch, then indeed, we would say to Nigerians, ‘A word is enough for the wise’.

“Fortunately, to the benefit of Nigerians, there remains a few good men within PDP. These honourable men belonging to the party’s NWC, deemed it right to return hundreds of millions of Naira allegedly transferred into their individual bank accounts as ‘hush money’ to suppress the investigation of the scandal of humongous financial misappropriation levelled against their National Chairman.

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“It is quite obvious to Nigerians that the PDP is a house that is divided against itself and it sure won’t stand. At their presidential campaign flag-off in Uyo today, the absence of many of the PDP State Governors tells a story to Nigerians that no amount of political jamboree can whitewash PDP’s cracked walls. It tells a story of a budding autocratic leadership, nourished by impunity, which now fans the flame of divisions and absolute disrespect for laid down rules and regulation.

“Not much should, therefore, be expected from such a gathering. With the obvious inability of its Presidential Candidate to assuage frayed nerves of disaffected persons within their ranks, how will it be possible for such a person to unite people within such a diverse landscape as Nigeria? You definitely cannot give what you don’t have.”

Keyamo said the PDP failed to act as a formidable opposition since the party was voted out of power in 2015, adding that it has continued to be embroiled in a crisis, “much the same way it bungled the running of the affairs of our country for 16 good years in an orgy of incompetence, unabated corruption, and impunity.”

“The PDP and its self-conceited leadership failed woefully to put its house in order before hitting the streets to ask for the votes of Nigerians and, ironically, telling Nigerians they are on a rescue mission.

“Till date, their National Secretariat remains uncompleted, whilst the APC, in its relatively shorter existence, now has a permanent headquarters.

“Our democracy is young. This Fourth Republic is barely 24 years old. But then, a 24 years old man would be said to be coming of age. At this time, Nigerians are no longer interested in a trial-and-error leadership.

“Those who have not been proven to be ‘good enough’ leaders should have no access to our highest office. If nothing else speaks to the disaster an Abubakar Atiku presidency will be, this crisis within the PDP does so eloquently.

“It is high time Nigerians called out the PDP for their spurious promises and the obnoxious behaviour of their helmsmen. It is highly unfortunate that some of the most honorable of their leaders are being sacrificed on the altar of the greed of a few persons and their inordinate ambition,” he added.

The Star