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- Insists abandoning PDP in 2013 derailed country’s progress
BY EDMOND ODOK – Former Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential aspirant ahead of the 2023 general elections, Senator Pius Anyim has attributed the current socio-economic challenges facing Nigeria to the decision by key political actors who abandoned the Party in 2013
Pointedly, Senator Anyim said those who jumped ship from PDP to join forces with the then-emerging opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)) allegedly deceived Nigerians and brought the present woes upon the country.
In a veiled reference to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and then Governors of Adamawa, Kwara, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers, and Niger States, who walked out of the PDP’s National Convention due to unfavourable happenings, Anyim said Nigeria has not been able to recover from the events of that fateful day in the last seven years.
He has, therefore, warned the Party and Nigerians against repeating the ‘mistake of that year’ by the defectors and their actions that inadvertently plunged the nation into untold hardship.
Senator Ayim, who addressed a consultative meeting with PDP stakeholders across the six geo-political zones in Abuja at the weekend, said; “In 2015, some of us in PDP, simply decided to pull out of PDP and bring that government down and we were plunged into darkness. That is why we are here.
“Let nobody confuse you. Let nobody mislead you. We were confused and misled in 2015. And that is why we are here. We now have an opportunity to come together and reinvent ourselves.
“Do you agree with me that Nigerians are saying please return us to 2015? If Nigerians are begging us to return them to 2015, do you have any reason not to support me?”
Ayim, who was Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Goodluck Jonathan, is among the 17 aspirants gunning for the presidential ticket of the nation’s main opposition.
He said Nigerians deserve more and would have been better off in terms of democracy dividends if the PDP administration was not obstructed by the APC in 2015, adding; “We were planning that for the second tenure of President Jonathan.
“We will stretch out these plans and policies to actually deliver maximum results. Unfortunately, that administration was truncated.”
Urging party members to support his aspiration to return Nigeria to the path of growth and prosperity, the former SGF pledged; “If you stand by me, if you partner with me, we will return this country, again on the path of peace, growth, and prosperity.”
According to him, afforded the opportunity to lead the country as president, Nigeria will become competitive once again, adding; “I want to say that in returning Nigeria on the part of growth, we have to sharpen a new foundation or at least the return to where we stopped in 2015.
“I want to say that the crises of our nation today, the challenge of our time today demands a unifier. It demands a crisis manager. It demands a stabilizer and these are all that I am known for. I will build consensus across the board. I will make sure I secure the buy-in of every component of our polity before I deploy any policy that will help us move forward.”
Commenting on the current security challenges, Senator Anyim, who promised to tackle the disease from the roots and ensure it does not rear its ugly head in any meaningful manner, said; “I will address insecurity from the roots and by the time I take it up from its roots, I will nip it at the point of arms. I mean at the point people start carrying arms.”
For Anyim, it has become expedient to think out of the box on ways of adequately tackling insecurity, saying; “Without that underground preparation, it will be difficult to just carry arms and achieve results.”
