Joseph Bakare
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Uche Secondus, has sought the forgiveness of Nigerians for what he described as mistakes made while the party was in power prior to the 2015 general elections.
Giving a keynote speech on Monday, at an event in Abuja with the theme: Nation-building: Resetting The Agenda, he admitted that although the party did its best while in government, it was not void of mistakes.
According to Secondus, the ability to admit one’s mistakes is key to moving forward especially as the Party has learnt from them.
He, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to put all the party’s wrongs behind and support it in the coming elections.
He said: “I hereby admit that the People’s Democratic Party made many mistakes and it is human, we are not spirits. The ability to admit is a key for moving forward, it is a key for learning. We admit that we have made several mistakes. We also admit that by the grace of God, we have passed through all our challenges, with experience that no other party can boast of.
“Consequently, we were roundly sanctioned by Nigerians, occasioning our loss at the polls in 2015.
“Let me seize this opportunity to apologise for our past mistakes, we have learnt from our mistakes unlike the APC government,” he said.
Speaking further, the PDP National Chairman criticized the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) saying that the nation has never been more divided than it is now, under the present government.
He, therefore, stressed the importance of nation-building especially at a time like this.
“There are certain circumstances that make nation-building top priority
“Our economy has been under immense pressure especially in the last 34 months of governance by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). not even during the civil war has this country been so divided along ethnic and religious fault lines.
“When a country is in such precarious situations, nation-building becomes absolutely inevitable.”
While criticizing the APC for its failure to deliver on its key campaign promises which include fighting corruption, improving national security and boosting the economy, Secondus noted that his party was the only one among several others, that is truly rooted in “strong democratic principles and ideals”.
He, therefore, asked Nigerians to support its cause.
“Realizing the importance of free, credible elections in the life of any democracy, the PDP embarked on massive electoral reforms that ensured the conduct of free, fair credible elections and saw a ruling party lose in an election successfully transcended power top the opposition, it is the first time it is happening in our country and even an example for the entire continent.
“Even though sad about our loss, we as a party are immensely proud of what we consider our most significant achievement of willingly transferring power to opposition when the time came, thus giving a lie to all predictions that Nigeria will break up in 2015.
“Let me alert the current ruling party that no less is expected of them and we hope that they will heed to that advise.
“Only a party like ours, truly founded on strong democratic principles and ideals, ultimately drawing its inspiration from the people hence its motto, ‘PowerTo The People’, could have submitted to the superior will of the people and we did just that in 2015.
“We must humble ourselves before God who created us and tell the truth. We can’t continue as a nation of lies – what are we going to give to our children?
“On behalf of my colleagues and members of this party, we apologize to Nigerians that we have made our mistakes and we are ready to correct them and to build on a new note, on a new agenda because experience is the best teacher and no other Party has it,” Secondus said.