₦airaland Forum

Prince Uche Secondus was elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party at its National Convention held in December 2017. He granted his first interview since assuming office exclusively to DAILY INDEPENDENT in Abuja last week where he spoke on current developments in the party, President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration for second term, youth presidency, Third Force and other issues of national interests. TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI brings the excerpts:

President Buhari last week declared his intention to seek reelection despite an earlier promise he made in 2011 that he will only do a single term if he becomes president. Were you surprised about his change of mind?

Nigerians can now see for themselves the nature of the deceit and the character of the president they voted for, a president who is fighting corruption in a crude manner and not in a civilised way. Nigerians can now see the military style of this administration and they can as well see the honesty and integrity of the president. A man who said he will only do a single term like (Nelson) Mandela. Suddenly, he changes his mind and despite all the challenges he is facing, he still believes that he can steer the affairs of the Nigerian ship in the next four years. It is for Nigerians to decide but I believe President Buhari is not honest. You already said you are running for one term but you suddenly turned around and said you are going to run again. He said it clearly that he will run for one term in 2011. I believe that is betrayal of trust.

Are you convinced that whoever emerges as your presidential candidate will be able to defeat the APC flagbearer in 2019?

I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that we will present a credible presidential candidate that will be acceptable to all Nigerians. Such candidate will emerge through a free, fair and credible democratic process. I am confident that whoever flies the flag of our party will defeat the presidential candidate of APC, including President Buhari because I don’t see Nigerians voting the APC back to power again. They have failed in all their promises. In fact, it was a colossal failure and they themselves know that they have disappointed Nigerians. They promised one Naira to a Dollar, today it is N362 to a Dollar. They said if Buhari becomes president, fuel will be sold at N40 per litre. Today, fuel is being sold at N145 per litre and above N200 in some places. They visited hunger and untold hardship on the masses. The economy today is in shambles. People are losing jobs on a daily basis. Unemployment rate is on the highest level and killer herdsmen are on rampage. They have failed virtually on all that they promised. So, why will any sane person ask them to continue in another four years? Nigerians have experienced both APC and PDP and they can see that the difference is very clear. Of course, we made some mistakes but we were humble enough to admit it and promised to right the wrongs in the future. So, i am optimistic that our candidate will beat the APC candidate, even if it is Buhari by a wide margin but we are appealing that the election should be free and fair”. They are adopting all kinds of technology and we have nothing against that because technology can be used to do a lot of positive things but it can also be used for rigging. We have seen how technology can be used to rig elections, the latest happened in the United States. We don’t want a situation where when you cast your vote for PDP, your votes automatically switches to APC. So, we ask INEC to come clean and play by the rules of the game and guarantee us that the various technology they are deploying will not be used to rig elections in favour of APC. The litmus test is the forthcoming election in Ekiti state.

Recently, there is clamour for youth presidency in 2019. Is the PDP also looking towards that direction?

Our platform is free. We want everybody, both young and old to contest freely. Let it be the people’s choice. It is not going to be our choice. That is our focus.

You apologised to Nigerians for the misdeeds of the PDP in the last 16 years but Asiwaju Bola Tinubu while speaking at the colloquium said Nigerians should not accept the apology. What is your take on that?

That is Tinubu’s opinion. Tinubu is not God and he speaks for himself, and not Nigerians. I believe a lot of Nigerians have accepted our apology. It is a good thing when you take wrong steps and you realise it and make amends. Within our party, there was impunity and imposition of candidates. Many people were not happy about it. People will win at the local level but their names are changed at headquarter of the party here. So, we decided to start afresh and that means apologising to our teeming supporters in order to restore confidence that this brand new leadership of our party will come out very transparent and conduct credible, free and fair primaries so, that our people can have trust once again. at a time, they lost confidence in us, but we are doing now is to build confidence. We are humans, not spirits and as such, we are bound to make mistakes. If anybody says that we should not apologise, it means the person is claiming to be God that is perfect. We stand by our apology to Nigerians and we have no regret about it.


https://independent.ng/nigerians-wont-fall-for-apcs-propaganda-in-2019-secondus/

You'd be shocked at how many silly people there are out there!

So they will fall for PDP's lies?

Nigerians might fall if you guys don't bring out a credible candidate to send him back to Daura

Oga return your loots and do atonement before asking us for a chance.

Useless people, useless Party.

SternProphet:
So they will fall for PDP's lies?

Might be You Didn't Bother To Read This..

Recently, there is clamour for youth presidency in 2019. Is the PDP also looking towards that direction?

Our platform is free. We want everybody, both young and old to contest freely. Let it be the people’s choice. It is not going to be our choice. That is our focus.

Or Might be You Are Not Tired of Grandpa Buhari ?, A Man Who Has No Solution To Nothing,