APC’s tenure has placed Nigeria’s democracy under stress ― Secondus

The five and hard years of the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration has placed the nation’s democracy under stress, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has observed.

He made that declaration when he received the British High Commission’s Political Counsellor on Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Jonathan Bacon, at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Friday.

The party boss said the country is in a sorry situation because all the electoral reforms achieved by the PDP to deepen Nigeria’s democracy prior to the 2015 general election have been destroyed by the ruling party.

He said: “For five and half years now that the APC held sway, our democracy has been under severe stress. All critical institutions of democracy have been brutalized. The judiciary, legislature and the media have been under siege while human rights and rule of law; the necessary ingredients of democracy have all been flagrantly abused.

“Though the APC administration came into power as a beneficiary of a transparent and credible election conducted under the PDP, it has not been able to conduct any free and fair election but had rather continued to abuse our electoral process and frustrate the desires and efforts of Nigerians to further amend our Electoral Act to guarantee acceptable elections in our country.”

The National Chairman also bemoaned the escalated insecurity in the country under the APC and the lack of commitment on the path of the current administration to decisively tackle the outlaws and end the mindless killings, bloodletting, kidnapping, banditry and other acts of terrorism in our country.

He lamented that the security situation has reached a despondent curve where critical stakeholders, out of frustration, are now calling on the people to defend themselves in the face of government’s failure to defend them.

On the economy, Secondus noted that the present administration has plunged the nation into the worst economic hardship, which has been exacerbated by the incompetence and lack of clear-cut policy direction, insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians and unprecedented corruption of the APC administration.

“Indeed, this is not the way our nation should be. We must come together to rescue our nation by commencing critical conversations within the ambit of the law and democratic practice to salvage the situation” he said.

The National Chairman, however, commended the international community and development partners for their support especially in strengthening our electoral system and urged them to show more interest in Nigeria democracy ahead of 2023 general elections.

Secondus announced the party’s plans to organize a conference that will focus on security, economy, electoral reforms and national stability.

According to him, it will dwell on how to salvage the nation and return it to the path of peace, national cohesiveness and economic prosperity.

He informed that the main opposition party has already commenced consultations with critical stakeholders across the board on ways to rescue Nigeria from misrule through institutional reforms ahead of the 2023 general elections.

In his remark earlier, Bacon had earlier told Prince Secondus that he was in the Wadata Plaza to meet with the leadership of the PDP and discuss the United Kingdom/Nigeria bilateral relations.

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