The All Progressives Congress and opposition Peoples Democratic Party have come hard on erstwhile Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for advising the electorate to reject both parties in the next general elections in 2023.
While the APC warned Jega to desist from attacking the party as part of his schemes to polish his political career, the PDP said comparing the party with the APC was a big disservice to the nation.
Jega, in an interview with BBC Hausa, warned Nigerians against reelecting the PDP and APC into office in subsequent elections, citing their alleged failure to bring development to the country in the past 20 years.
While the PDP ruled the country from 1999 till 2015, the ruling APC took over power in 2015.
In a statement on Monday, Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, described the comparison by the former INEC boss as unpardonable disservice to Nigeria.
“Trying to compare the incompetent and decadent APC to the highly productive and development-oriented PDP is an unpardonable disservice to our nation and calls to question the sense of judgment of Professor Jega,” Ologbondiyan said.
“It is indeed unfortunate that Prof. Jega, as a professor of political science, could portray an ignorance of the manifest contrasts between the robust fortunes of our nation under the PDP and the wasteland she has become under the APC.
“Perhaps the Professor needs to be reminded of how the PDP worked hard to revamp our nation’s economy, paid off our huge foreign debts and went ahead to grow the economy to become the largest investment hub in Africa as well as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with Fitch B+ rating; only for the APC to wreck the economy and turned our nation into the world poverty capital and a debtor country in a space of six years.
“Prof. Jega must also be reminded how the PDP reinvigorated the private sector with new businesses and employments springing up in critical sectors of telecoms, aviation, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, education, retailing, hospitality, healthcare and banking among others.
“Today, under the APC and Buhari, these gains have been wrecked with massive closure of businesses, which saw over 60 million Nigerians losing their means of livelihood, with alarming 33.3 percent unemployment rate and over 82.9 million more and about 25 million families not being able to afford their daily meals as our country ranks 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, due to the obnoxious policies of the APC and President Buhari.”
The PDP national publicity secretary added that the PDP stabilised the economy, but the APC wrecked it.
“We invite Professor Jega to note how the PDP ran an all-inclusive and transparent administration that guaranteed freedom of speech, equity, fairness as well as free and fair elections, which he attested to; and how the APC, had been running a massively corrupt, insensitive, divisive and exclusionist administration that has destroyed our national cohesion and turned our nation into a battle field,” he said.
“As professor of political science, Prof. Jega ought to know that while the PDP is an ideologically based political party, the APC is just a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) operated on the basis of deception and that is why it has failed in all ramification and now fizzled in the eyes of the law.”
Ologbondiyan added that Nigerians are already coming to terms with the “failure” of the APC and would hesitate to vote the ruling party in 2023.
The APC in its statement signed by the National Secretary of its Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, said, “Our attention has been drawn to an uncontrolled, wrong and untenable political outburst by a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega in which he lumped the All Progressives Congress (APC), together with the failed People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“While the PDP failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians as a government and opposition party, the APC is thriving, healthy and assiduously cleaning the massive mess left behind by the PDP which failed to deliver democratic dividends to the people of Nigeria after being in charge of the country for 16 years.
“While Professor Jega is right about the PDP, a party under which he served as the Chairman of the nation’s election management body, we reject his comparison of the APC with the PDP.
“Professor Jega got his facts wrong and mixed up in his baseless comparison of the PDP with the APC.

“While we do not intend to join issues with Professor Jega, we encourage him to engage in genuine scholarly research and come up with evidence-based conclusions on the progressive orientation of the APC.
“It is however instructive to note that having recently abandoned his academic pursuit and blindly plunged into the arena of PDP’s brand of politics, the erstwhile electoral umpire as a politician can make such political statements occasionally while trying to launch his political career in a mushroom political party.
“The APC is a strong, united, popular and focused political unit. Hence, the Professor should note the political lesson that maligning the APC would not provide him with a springboard to achieve his desires. Nigerians are wiser and remain the ultimate judges.”