The ruling party says it is tired of un constructive criticisms
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the opposition parties in the country to a series of public debates on issues of national development and project inspection.
The party said it is throwing the challenge as it believes that it is better to compare achievements, rather than engaging in “un constructive criticism on the pages of newspapers”.
Olisa Metuh, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, while reacting to criticisms from opposition parties in the country, said that President Goodluck Jonathan’s Democracy Day’s address to the nation had chronicled the giant strides taken by the PDP-led government in all sectors of the nation’s life.
“But while the president is doing all that is humanly possible to ensure stability within the polity, the opposition leaders are constantly sowing seeds of discord,” he said, in a statement on Thursday.
According to him, despite the opposition’s antagonism towards the PDP, the entire world has acknowledged that the country’s democracy is now stable, strong and firm.
“Yet in their desperation and desire to destroy the reputation of the PDP, some leaders of the opposition parties are turning into prophets of doom, promising us brimstone and fire if they fail in their quest to acquire power,” he said. “We will not allow them to derail our democracy. As President Jonathan said in his May 29th address, ‘we will not treat the success we have recorded with our democratic experience with levity,’” he said.
Metuh challenged the opposition parties to rise beyond name calling to a submission of alternative solutions which “is an essential role for the opposition as a shadow government”. “Let the opposition take us to task on perceived points of deficiency with brilliant alternatives and demonstrate to Nigerians that their ultimate goal is to contribute towards the growth of the country rather than the pursuit of a sinister agenda,” he said.
He said no sincere Nigerian can deny that when Jonathan assumed office last year, there were fears about political and economic instability in the nation; pointing out that through a set of priority policies, programmes, and projects encapsulated in PDP’s transformation agenda, Nigeria’s economic and political ratings have become positive.
