Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said he does not owe his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stressing, instead that it is the party that owes him a debt of gratitude.
Atiku Abubakar stated this in his response to a PDP statement released some days ago by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, which urged him to be grateful to the PDP for harbouring him and giving him the opportunity to be Vice President as well as contest the primaries for the Presidency in 2011.
He carpeted Metuh and other top party members in authority currently, asking them where they were when the party was formed.
“If the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP doesn’t have the knowledge of how the party came into being, then it will be in order that he goes into the archives and read about the history of the party and the roles certain individuals, particularly former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, played in building the party”, Atiku’s media office wrote in a statement.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar does not owe to the PDP. Rather it is the PDP that owes a debt of thanks to him. Where were Metuh and his paymasters when the PDP was in its formative stage? If he and his paymasters came as free riders into the party, that shouldn’t mean they have the licence to distort history.
“The demagogic outburst and the repeated innuendoes by which the PDP has been nursing its wounds following the exit of its founding fathers will do no good for the party to reverse the trend of how it is fast losing acceptability by the Nigerian people”.
The statement added that Nigerians need good governance, so they need to be told how the only country we all call home can be safe for each and every one of us.
“Nigerians need a political party that will work on the parlous state of the country’s economy and restore financial confidence to Nigerians who work hard to support their families”, the statement continued.
“The youths of Nigeria need a political party that can give them a direction to the future. There are very many challenges besetting the country today and it will be incongruous that a political party in government will ignore these challenges and continue to vituperate over individuals who have deserted its fold to join forces with a political party better suited to provide solutions to the myriad of problems confronting the country”.
