Aso Rock has lashed out at the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari has a strained relationship with his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement issued on Thursday by presidential media assistant, Garba Shehu, the Presidency advised the PDP to face the more troubling reality of what it called the “terminal decline and grim future of the PDP”.
Shehu asked the PDP to go back to Nigerians and find out why it was rejected at the presidential polls twice in quick succession, and reboot itself to play a formidable opposition party role, instead of meddling into APC’s internal affairs and making false conjectures about its future.
The statement reads: “As the People’s Democratic Party, the country’s main opposition party grapples with deeply troubling questions about its terminal decline and future in national politics, Nigerians must be surprised reading a statement issued by them, assuming the role of Spokesmen for President Muhammadu Buhari.
“What business do they have talking about alleged love lost between President Buhari and the APC? What do they know? Who sent them?
“Today, the PDP represents the single biggest obstacle to good governance and change that the country needs and the people are yearning for.
“Both self-respect and sound political judgement demand that the Party takes an introspective look at itself after two successive defeats in national elections, asking what went wrong and how to fix its battered image.
“They need to go back to the people, in towns and villages, to know what the people want and what the country needs. Instead of doing that, they are taking roles for themselves that are not mandated by law, morality or political gamesmanship.
“What business do they have issuing a statement on the love or the lack of it between the President and his party? This is not why they lost elections.
“The party needs a reboot that aligns with current national mood and aspirations, to focus on their grim future after two successive defeats. It is the issue they need to focus on if they are to be taken as a serious opposition party again.
“A tough task awaits anyone leading a party with nothing to offer to contemporary Nigerians but corruption, misgovernance and division.
“As for the APC, the geographical expansion of the party is nothing short of a testimony to the rosy future that lies ahead. The party has come to stay, and the President and the country will ensure that this is achieved.”