The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Bola Tinubu and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being desperate to plunge Nigeria into a state of war by involving the nation’s military in what it called a needless conflict with neighboring Niger Republic.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary, the party strongly condemned what it also described as an act of desperation by part of the president and the APC.
The PDP observed that the insistence by the APC administration to draft Nigerian soldiers into the Niger Republic in defiance of the disapproval by the National Assembly and Nigerians across the board validates apprehensions in the public domain of ulterior motives by the Tinubu-led APC to import crisis and destabilize our nation for political reasons.
While the PDP frowned at the unconstitutional change of government in any part of the world, the main opposition party argued that the situation in the Niger Republic does not warrant any external peace-keeping effort and does not constitute any threats whatsoever to Nigeria’s national interest to justify committing the already overstretched military to harm’s way “in a needless war.”
The PDP added: “The insistence of the APC government to go to war in the Niger Republic is already heightening tension in Nigeria.
“There are insinuations in the public that the APC is only desperate to deploy Nigerian military to the Niger Republic so as to provoke possible external aggression from that country, thereby orchestrating a situation for the declaration of a State of Emergency in Nigeria with the tendency to cripple the judicial process on the 2023 Presidential election and divert attention from the hardship the APC has foisted on the nation in the last two months.
“It is apparent that the APC is desperate to orchestrate a situation of “imminent danger of invasion or involvement in a state of war’ so as to have the excuse to declare a State of Emergency under Section 305 (3) (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
The PDP noted that nothing else can explain why the APC administration is eager to go to war in the Niger Republic “while it has practically turned a blind eye to the insecurity situation in our country, even with the mindless killing of over 500 innocent Nigerians in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other states of the federation since May 2023.
“Also distressing is that the APC is ready to deploy billions of naira to prosecute a needless war despite our ailing national economy, crippled production sector, energy crisis, massive unemployment, frightening fall in the value of the Naira and excruciating hardship in the country occasioned by its ill-informed, hasty and ill-implemented policies.
“Such can only come from an anti-people administration that has no iota of interest in the security and wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.”
The PDP urged the military high command to take note of the disapproval of the National Assembly to the deployment of the nation’s troops to the Niger Republic and be guided by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
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