The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of embarking on a fruitless ego trip with its criticism of the Federal Government’s decision to schedule some Inauguration Day ceremonies for June 12 2019.
The group described the opposition party as being mischievous for suggesting that President Muhammadu 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.
BMO said in a statement signed by Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke that it was amused that a party that outrightly refused to recognise the sanctity of June 12 for 16 years now wants 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 Moshood Abiola ‘stood and died for democracy’, but did everything possible to stop him from being immortalized while it rode roughshod over Nigeria and Nigerians.
“It is therefore nothing more than an ego trip to nowhere for 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 the majority of Nigerians that cast their ballots on February 23,” the group said.
BMO also accused the PDP leaders of attempting to revise recent history with their claim of a stolen mandate which it insisted only existed in the imagination of their members and a group of political elite that is used to living off government patronage.
“We wonder how long PDP would continue to live in a fool’s paradise with its constant refrain of a stolen mandate in an election that all its key campaign spearheads lost in their polling units, just like their presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar was unable to muster enough votes in his immediate constituency in Adamawa State to defeat President Buhari.
“Many of their allies across the country, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the factional Afenifere leadership were also roundly rejected in their polling units, wards and states by the mass of Nigerians who were clearly averse to a return of the rapacious PDP years.
“We at BMO again want to remind the party and its leaders that the February 23 Presidential election conferred 100% legitimacy on the President for a second term with a margin that is more than the combined population of Swaziland, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius.
“We are convinced that the Presidential election Petition Tribunal would consign their claim, which is predicated on fake INEC server result, to the dustbin of history where it rigthly belongs.”
The group also expressed hope that the next set of National Assembly members would take the necessary legislative action to establish June 12 as the National Democracy Day.