Jonathan should apologise for bad governance – APC

The All Progressives Congress has called on former President Goodluck Jonathan to apologise to Nigerians for the kind of "bad governance and leadership" it administered on the country during the six years he spent in office.

The party also called on the Peoples Democratic Party to eat the humble pie and apologise to the people for the way it mismanaged the country for the 16 years it ruled the country, saying their apologies would be the most honourable thing to do.

A statement on Sunday by the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Ondo State, Omo'ba Adesanya, noted that instead of making excuses, the PDP should be remorseful and apologetic for plunging the country into the mess it found itself.

The statement partly read, "Jonathan and PDP brought this country into disrepute, domestic and international odium, economic crisis, insecurity, unemployment, unprecedented corruption, abuse of state apparatus, infrastructural decadence, poverty, and many other issues.

"But instead of being remorseful and apologetic, the party, through its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, has been making defenceless excuses and arguments, saying President Muhammadu Buhari is slow, that APC is not prepared for governance or that we are not keeping to our promises.

"This is laughable because Nigerians are already in sync with the current administration. The President should be commended for his dogged approach to blocking all leakages and apprehending looters."

The statement added that the process of rescuing the country from the level the PDP government left it might take time and that there would be need for patience.

It added, "You cannot hit the ground running without carefully observing and removing the entire banana peels littering the ground to avoid a dangerous crash. We advice Metuh and his party to be patient. In a matter of time, after all that is being planned by this government has mature and the results start coming out, Nigerians will be able to know who has come to serve them and who has taken them for a ride for 16 years."

Meanwhile, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Ondo State, Mr. Banji Okunomo, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday, urged the APC to stop acting like an opposition party, saying it should rather focus on how to deliver on the promises it made to Nigerians.

He said, "They are taking Nigerians for granted and they do not know that Nigerians are already losing their patience to want to see the promised change which they used in cajoling Nigerians into electing them into power.

"From its inception, the APC has been showing that it is not ready for governance as it cannot even put its house in order. So, for the period they were in the opposition, in a way, their mentality or psyche has been assaulted, and that is why they keep behaving like an opposition party. We want to see them manifest their campaign promises."