The Presidency has asserted that the apology by the leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was to enable it return to power and continue its unrestricted access to the national treasury.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, last week at an event tendered the apology of his party to Nigerians admitting that it made some mistakes as the ruling party for 16 years.
He called on Nigerians to give the party another chance stressing that it had learnt its lesson.
But in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the Presidency said the apology by PDP was made out of its desperation to return to power.
According to the Presidency, returning to power would give the party unrestricted access to the treasury once more.
“The point made by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is apt and on cue, that there are heavy moral duties that go with apologies if the culprits want to be taken seriously.
“The PDP is desperate to recapture power because it no longer has unhindered access to national resources for private uses and its apology should be seen in this context,” said the Presidency.
Pointing out that the PDP had not, in its apology, acknowledged the fact that it plundered the national economy, the Presidency said for a party that dismissed anti-corruption war as a political witch hunt, it was impossible to believe that its public apology came from the bottom of its heart.
“Even desperate thieves apologise because they are caught and not because they are incapable of repeating the crime if they had another opportunity.
“We believe that the PDP should not only apologise for the imposition of candidates, and the culture of impunity, but must also come clean and acknowledge that they participated in large scale corruption and massive diversions of public funds to private pockets while poverty was ravaging the ordinary Nigerians,” it said.
The Presidency challenged individual PDP leaders to publicly and voluntarily tell Nigerians how much they allegedly stole and then agree to cough up their illegal acquisitions of wealth if they wanted their apology to be taken seriously.
It emphasised that apology borne by desperation to recapture power without a desire to admit how much was stolen and the reluctance to return the loot was morally hollow.
“This goes beyond rebranding. Nigerians are not interested in brands. They want their money back.
“For such apology to gain acceptance, the offenders must first of all show remorse; then return that which was unlawfully taken or restore the damage caused the nation; and commit to never doing the wrong they did again. The PDP has done none of these for them to be taken seriously by anyone,” the Presidency said.
It argued that instead of addressing the cogent issue raised by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that it should return its alleged looted funds, the PDP veered off to accuse the Presidency of borrowing money.
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The Presidency said while the current administration borrowed to set up long-delayed infrastructure, PDP borrowed to allegedly steal.
The statement by the Presidency reads further: “They accused the President of unevenness, of inflaming ethnic and religious tensions, when it is on record that they gave this country its divisive president who chose the hallowed premises of places of worship to read important national statements.
“President Buhari never fails in his duty as the Chief Security Officer of the nation. He acts fast whenever and wherever there are incidents by ordering law-enforcement agencies to do their job and fact-finding mission to give him actionable reports.
“PDP’s uncaring attitude to these matters, including the kidnapping of 270 girls from Chibok is the hallmark of the long years of misrule.
“Another issue of moral and political significance is about the recent disclosure by US investigators that the PDP government engaged in massive data theft that included the hacking of Candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s personal data before the last general elections.
“PDP’s continued silence on this reprehensible heist only goes to confirm their remorselessness even as more and more facts are emerging that the same unfair method was the modus operandi that they used to capture political power.”
