PDP, APC: OLD BABYLON FALLING DOWN,

BY EBUBE OKONKWO

In their hey days, both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the All Progressives Congress (APC), behaved as if they alone owned the whole world. The two political parties would not brook or tolerate any opposition. They were arrogant, rude, atrocious, proud, and too full of themselves. They had deceived many Nigerians and led several people astray.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in particular, did many things with impunity, with alacrity, and without apology. They never envisaged that they would one day be out of power. The PDP had projected that they would be in office for at least fifty years uninterrupted. But, alas, with only sixteen years in power, the party came crashing, and the fall was too heavy that till today, members of the PDP could not pull themselves back again.

On its part, the All Progressives Congress (APC), while mocking the PDP for their many misdeeds and failures, presented themselves as the new Moses who would lead Nigeria to the Promised Land. The party painted the future of Nigeria in their hands to be so rosy and as bright as daylight. This was what made many people in the country to fall for them.

But with almost eight years of Nigeria in the hands of the All Progressives Congress, many people are seeing their ears with their two eyes. It is like jumping from frying pan into the fire. Everything is in its worst elements, turned upside down. Security of lives and property take a nose dive, with many people being slaughtered like cows on daily basis, not only by Boko Haram insurgents, but also by AK-47 wielding Fulani herdsmen and other bandits. The government is overwhelmed, and unable to do anything.

Poverty has taken a centre stage in the hands of the APC administration, with the country assuming the position of poverty capital of the world. Out of about 200 million people living in Nigeria, over 113 million people are picking their meals from the dust bin, poverty-stricken. This is in spite of the abundant human and material resources available in the country.

This almost hopeless and debilitating situation has made many Nigerians to lose faith in both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The two political parties have done irreparable harm to them. The economy is in shambles, or has virtually collapsed. The political future is uncertain, while agitations for separation continue unabated.

All these, and many more, account for why millions of Nigerians with conscience are increasingly turning their backs on both the PDP and the APC as clearly manifested by the wave of revolts blowing across the length and breadth of the country against the two political parties. Nigerians are tired of these two old Babylon, the PDP and the APC, and are determined to pull them down and cast them into the bottomless pit, with its pull of fire.

The result of the recent opinion poll conducted by NOI Polls Limited, commissioned by Anap Foundation, where the Presidential candidates of the PDP and the APC, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu respectively, were trounced by Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, has confirmed the loss of faith in both the PDP and the APC by majority of Nigerians.

According to the result, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party scored 23 percent of those who responded to the poll, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC took the second position with 13 percent, while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP got the third position with only 10 percent. This is most devastating and disappointing for the two political parties.

The December 2022 NOI opinion poll result is not a mere chance incident. Similar poll result conducted by the group last September equally had Peter Obi of the Labour Party ahead of 17 other Presidential Candidates who were gearing to take part in the 2023 election.

2023 will indeed be the deciding year for Nigerians. Many people are angry and tired of both the PDP and the APC, and are ever ready and determined to free themselves from the stranglehold of the whore, the old Babylon, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, and to vote them out in next year’s general election, so to enthrone a new political order in the country.