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By Myke Agunwa
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has stated that since the party reinvented itself and unified its members ahead of the National Convention holding in Ibadan, Oyo state from 15 – 16th November 2025, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been in panic mode and shopping for endorsements.
In a press conference by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba on Monday, PDP said that Nigerians are excited that the PDP is putting its house in order. He said that Nigerians still remember with nostalgia, the good days of PDP leadership when the welfare of citizens was prioritized adding that the strategy adopted by the ruling party is one of falsehood and propaganda.
“You recall some of those high points where, under the PDP leadership, this country paid off its debts, today we’re back in debt. The APC as a government, takes lies and propaganda as an act of governance.
“The president said about a week ago that the country has achieved its revenue target as of August and then you begin to ask yourself, is it a voodoo economy? There’s no reality, there’s no connection between what he’s saying and what you feel in the marketplace.
“If you’ve met your target, then it means you’re probably having a surplus; if there’s a surplus, then the people will feel it. Our party after the convention will be strong enough knowing fully well that the PDP knows the art of governance” Ologunagba stated.
The opposition party said that the ruling party is in panic mode and is shopping for endorsement for President Tinubu two years before the election because it knows it has totally failed the people. To achieve this, it resorted to early campaigning in total disregard of the electoral act.
“INEC has expressed frustration on this early campaign that it is heating up the polity, so even as regulators they are worried. The reason for this behaviour is because the APC, President Tinubu, they are jittery about the recalibration and the fact that a PDP that is well known to Nigeria, is doing what it knows how to do best which is reconciliation, getting people together, working together and giving everybody a sense of belonging and that’s why the APC is jittery and that’s why you find that they began to campaign less than two years to the next election and the outcome of that is they now calibrate to a new level where what they do is to get panicky and begin to do what I call endorsement shopping. The President and APC are looking for endorsement.
“If indeed the President is doing well and the APC is succeeding, you let your work speak for you. You don’t want to say come and endorse me. So it is panic mode.
“The fact is that they’re not doing well, they have failed and they recognize that Nigeria truly knows that this APC has failed the country. So all manner of people come in and say we’re endorsing you.
“Like I said, endorsement is not on the pages of a newspaper. Endorsement is in the people and people that cannot feed their families. When the school season resumes, people are panicking and people are complaining because they can’t even pay school fees,” he added.
The publicity scribe noted that the PDP is making deliberate efforts to ensure that all organs of the party are carried along so that the forthcoming national convention will be a huge success.
According to him, “The rescue and the establishment of true democratic principles can only come into this country via the PDP. That is why we’re making sure that every organ of this party, every stakeholder, the chapters, all interests are being accommodated in the process.
“That’s why we have that large number of sub-committees so that we have more people to bring in their views and bring in their own suggestions that at the end, we will have a solid party ready to take on the APC and then re-establish democracy and re-establish good governance in this country.
“So the outcome of the convention at Ibadan is going to give birth to a very solid party. For 16 years, Nigerians remember with nostalgia the performance of this party, where the country was going progressively towards a positive direction”.
The opposition party warned against a repeat of the technical glitches that marred the 2023 general election. He said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a duty to ensure that votes count and the choice of the people validated at the collation centres.
“Nigerian people should freely express their views and their wishes in the ballot box and that their votes should count and be counted. We want votes to count and to be counted and to reflect the wishes of the people and the only body that must do that and ensure that Nigerian people and the democracy can continue to thrive here is INEC” he said.
Ologunagba said that INEC must push for necessary legal framework that will guarantee electronic transmission of results from the polling units.
“INEC must ensure a legal requirement that there will be an electoral transmission of election results from the polling units, so that it will be difficult to manipulate because all of us will see it in real time. The challenge is that there seems to be institutional manipulation of electoral process and so let’s break it down.
“So that seems to be institutional deliberate manipulation to ensure that they manipulate the process. So this INEC’s idea of glitches, if there are no glitches on the local POS that a woman selling coca-cola or drinks at polling unit during the election is operating at the same location and you have a POS used for sale of water and all other thing at the same unit working and then the BIVAS that has additional backup battery goes off, it can only be a manipulation institutionally managed and triggered by INEC. Nigerians know better now” PDP stated.