There have been fresh controversy between the ruling party in Nigeria and the main opposition party in the country following the legal battle over the result of the 2019 presidential election.
The candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, President Muhammadu Buhari had won the election after defeating Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other candidates.
The outcome of the election has been a subject of both legal battle and serious controversy between the PDP and the APC. The APC had raised fresh alarm that the PDP was doing everything to distabilise Buhari’s government which the PDP denied while telling the ruling party to rise up to its responsibilities for the citizens.
Also, the PDP criticised Buhari’s recent decision over the new Democracy Day. Recall that President Buhari recognised June 12.
The Buhari Media Organisation, BMO, accused the PDP of embarking on a fruitless ego trip with its criticism of Federal Government’s decision to schedule some Inauguration Day ceremonies on June 12.
According to The Nation, the group described the opposition as mischievous for suggesting that President Buhari would be inaugurated for a second term in office on the day, as opposed to May 29, which the Constitution recognises as the inauguration day for a new political dispensation.
In a separate statement by Akinsiju and Madueke, the BMO said it was amused that a party, which outright refused to recognise the sanctity of June 12 for 16 years, wanted to be seen as the defender of Nigeria’s democratic culture.
“Here is a party that is today speaking on what it described as sanctity of a day that it has the temerity to term as ‘our Democracy Day’. Yet, it was in total control of the Executive and Legislature at the centre for all of 16 years during which it had three different Presidents but failed to do anything to accord official recognition to a day that it now agrees is important in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.
“We are indeed shocked that the party, whose members were the biggest beneficiaries of June 12 sacrifice, now remembers that (the late Bashorun) Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola ‘stood and died for democracy’, but did everything possible to stop him from being immortalised while it rode roughshod over Nigeria and Nigerians.
“It is, therefore, nothing more than an ego trip to nowhere for the PDP to criticise the Federal Government’s decision to move some second-term inauguration ceremonies to June 12 and yet seek to claim the day as ‘our democracy day’.”
“But we need to let opposition elements know that whether inauguration ceremonies are held on May 29 or June 12, the President did enough in his first term to earn the trust of majority of Nigerians who cast their ballots on February 23,” it said.
Meanwhile, the legal tussle between the PDP and Atiku against APC and Buhari is still going on as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, has started considering the matter.
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