A sharp war of words yesterday broke out among Nigeria’s political parties, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) exchanging deeply personal and damaging criticisms.
The conflict ignited after the PDP Governors’ Forum held a meeting in Gusau, Zamfara State, drawing fire from both the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the ruling APC, leading to a series of blistering statements.
The PDP governors did not hold back in their response to criticism from the ADC, which had accused them of insensitivity for meeting in a state affected by insecurity. In a statement issued by the Director General of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Emmanuel Agbo, the party launched a scathing attack, describing the ADC as “a one chance political vehicle”. The phrase, commonly used in Nigeria to describe fraudulent taxi operations that rob passengers, was meant to dismiss the ADC as an unreliable and dishonest political outfit.
The PDP’s statement also extended what it called a conditional offer of reconciliation, couched in biblical terms. “The ADC, having made a decision akin to entering a ‘One Chance vehicle’ is again reminded that, like the proverbial forgiving father to the prodigal son, the PDP still has our arms and doors widely open to them if they genuinely act remorsefully in repentance,” Agbo stated.
The governors defended their meeting, stating it was scheduled long in advance and was used to seriously address national issues, particularly insecurity. “The meeting extensively deliberated on the state of the nation, the security situation amongst other critical issues of national interest,” the statement read, adding that the forum had “condemned the continued monstrous killings in Katsina, Plateau, Niger and Benue States.”
Not to be outdone, the APC launched its own counter-offensive against the PDP. In a statement from its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the ruling party delivered a brutally dismissive assessment of its main rival’s condition.
Morka described the PDP as “a party deeply in comatose and crippled by intractable crisis of its own making, fallen into ruins, and stood rejected by Nigerians.” He stated it was “comical for the governors of the PDP, a party in deep comatose, savagely crippled by intractable crisis of its own making, and turned an unrecognisable shadow of its old self, to be making statements that only aptly describe its own doomed fate.”
The APC’s retort was a direct response to claims from the PDP governors that the ruling party lacked vision and was undermining democracy. Morka pointed to the APC’s recent victories in bye-elections as proof of the public’s approval, stating they “attested loudly to the level that President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s Renewed Hope policies and programmes resonated with Nigerians.”
He dismissed the PDP’s complaints about electoral integrity as hypocritical, noting, “It is infantile and irresponsible for PDP governors to hail democracy where they won in the by-election and decry democracy everywhere they lost.”
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