Saturday’s mega rally by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been described as a sham, a flop and an unequivocal signal that the electorate had rejected the party.
In a statement by the spokesman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Felix Oboagwina, the Jimi Agbaje Campaign Organisation said that the APC rally was ignored by Lagosians and Nigerians in a clearly damning verdict.
Although commending the peaceful conduct of the rally, the statement asked Nigerians to discountenance it as a non-event.
“So much for APC’s so-called ONE-MILLION MAN MARCH, which did not garner even up to a tenth of its projected participants,” Oboagwina said. “In shunning the rally, Nigerians have demonstrated that they want nothing to do with the ruling party in Lagos State. It is a damning signal for APC and its leaders. And they had better read the handwriting on the wall and prepare for the worst defeat of their lives.”
According to the statement, Nigerians would continue to seize every opportunity to show that they were fed up with APC’s reign of impunity, its anti-people policies, the penchant for human rights abuses and the tendency to take citizens for granted.
“The last 16 years, APC chieftains have ruled as if the people do not matter,” Oboagwina said. “That explains why, instead of showing solidarity, the people left APC and its leaders to wallow through the streets of Lagos in this show-of-shame.”
Oboagwina pointed out that even the unsubstantiated millions of followers that APC would normally lay claim refused to join in the street march.
“One is sure that the APC chieftains will spend the rest of the night regretting why they dissipated energy organising an event meant to showcase strength but ended up displaying unpopularity,” the statement said. “APC ended up dancing naked in the marketplace.”
Accusing APC of lacking internal democracy, the statement urged the party to return to the drawing board as a step towards putting its falling house in order.
It said the truth was that in the coming elections, Nigerians would show just how much they detested and rejected APC.
Recalling that ahead of the flopped march, state agencies had sold the hype that citizens should seek alternative routes in anticipation of the city being ground to a halt by the ONE-MILLION MAN MARCH, the statement observed that today, Lagosians went about their businesses unhindered.
“No one even noticed that anything happened in the city,” the statement said.
Challenging APC to say how much went into organising the march, the statement said: “It would be interesting to know how much was spent on this show-of-shame. And we would not be surprised if the budget is not counted in the billions for a party reputed for building the costliest roads, per kilometre, in this part of the world.”
