PDP Urges Buhari Led Administration to learn from US Democratic Institution

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP has urged the ruling All Progressives Congress APC and President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration to take an example from the United States democratic institutions which checkmated trials by the U.S President, Donald Trump to cut off the country’s democracy.

The opposition party communicated this in a statement yesterday through its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan.

According to the party, the US election should serve as a powerful lesson to “corrupt and power-drunk leaders.” It noted that no matter how desperate a leader attempts to falsify the system, the people’s will would prevail.

It emphasized that the success of the US democratic institutions is raising Nigerians’ desires to allow democratic institutions to function in the country.

It accused President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress of degrading the people’s popular will during the 2019 presidential election. Comparing it to the US, the party said Trump’s will could not prevail because of strong Democratic institutions.

The PDP asserted that the insistence of the US judiciary and the legislature to uphold the provisions of their nation’s constitution, especially in resisting Trump, who is desperate to hold on to office even after losing an election, has reinforced the triumph of the collective will of a people through their system.

The statement reads, “Whereas our institutions of democracy including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies were brazenly manipulated by the APC in the 2019 elections, the United States experience strengthens the determination by Nigerians to stand up against such manipulations ahead of 2023.

“The PDP, therefore, calls on all Nigerians including compatriots in INEC, the judiciary, the legislature, security forces, faith-based organizations, the media, civil society groups, and other political parties to join forces with our party in the quest to reposition and strengthen our institutions for the task ahead.

“It is instructive to state that this is the only way to reposition our nation on the path of good governance, political stability, national cohesion, and economic prosperity.

“Never again should individuals be allowed to manipulate our system, denigrate our constitution, lie to and incite unsuspecting citizens, promote violence, division and killings; compromise our security agencies, invade our courts and intimidate our judiciary, assault our National Assembly and trample on our laws, all in their inordinate bid to impose their selfish political interests.

“There is no overstressing the fact that but for the strong institutions put in place by patriotic leaders of the United States, that nation would have been thrown into terrible turmoil or succumb to a chaotic order that would have no regard for the law and the will of the people.”

The party urged the Buhari administration to check tendencies that weaken the nation’s institutions and encourage the manipulation of security, judiciary, legislative and electoral bodies.

“Mr. President should take steps to ensure reforms that would strengthen our system, including ending all acts of nepotism in appointments into such sensitive institutions.

“The American example equally underpins the demand for public officers, particularly the APC leadership in the National Assembly, to begin to pay greater loyalty to our country and her interest over the parochial part of their party or the executive arm.

“The patriotism displayed by American Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, in rejecting the attempt to undermine their nation’s electoral system is a direct call on APC leaders in the National Assembly against the unpatriotic practice of putting narrow partisan interests above the national interest.

“Moreover, the APC must stop being a community of people with common selfish interest and desperation for personal enrichment, who are not ready to stand up for the truth in the face of acts of injustice, deprivation, and callousness against the Nigerian people and our constitutional order.”