The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not sold on the sudden declaration of June 12 as a national public holiday in honour of the late Chief Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election by President Muhammadu Buhari.
To the major opposition party, Buhari is merely using the name of Abiola to gain cheap political points.
The PDP was reacting to the conferment of the a posthumous the award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on Abiola 20 years after his death and declaring June 12 as Democracy Day from the present May 29.
In a statement signed by the PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, Buhari’s action showed smacks of hypocrisy and political desperation ahead of 2019 presidential election.
The statement reads in part:
“President Buhari’s action merely sought to use the name and person of Chief Abiola to gain a political capital and not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.
The party recalls that President Buhari who was serving in the military administration of General Sani Abacha during the travails of Chief MKO Abiola did not associate either by words or actions with the late winner of June 12 election.
History did not record President Buhari as sympathetic to the Abiola’s family when his wife, Kudirat, was gruesomely murdered by the agents of a government which president Buhari served.
It is, therefore, a sign of political desperation for President Buhari to seek to use Chief Abiola’s name as a tool to sway Nigerians in less than twelve months to an election where he is seeking a second term.”
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