Ray Nnaji
Former National Auditor of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Barr. Ray Nnaji has wondered how any politician in his right senses would defect to the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC). A party, he said, has failed to deliver democracy dividends to the people, but suffering and anguish.
Nnaji, who was speaking on the backdrop of the recent defections of some party bigwigs to APC in an interview, said such people are doing so for personal reasons, agenda, not for the good of the people.
He lamented that if not that the PDP could not manage their victory well, Nigerians would not have been in the precarious situation that they are in, and nobody would be talking of defecting to the APC.
The PDP stalwart said that he would not call such a movement defection but poaching, because all that the APC is doing is trying to strangle the opposition to have leeway into 2027 without a contest.
“They are using the language defection, but I am using the language poaching. APC is poaching the opposition to whittle them down to make sure that they are weak so that it will not be difficult for them in 2027, knowing full well that they have not performed with regard to delivering the democracy dividends.
“People are suffering, people are feeling bad about the government, and they are not pretending to be having problems with their policies,” Nnaji points out. According to him, the economy is in tatters, the value of our currency has been seriously depleted, and people are dying in droves for lack of funds for proper medication.
“No matter the money you have now, even when a drug is prescribed for you, you can’t see it, and even when you see it, the cost will be so exorbitant that only few people can afford it,” he said, noting that this is why many are allegedly dying today.
Nnaji however, lamented that the PDP has to blame for part of the precarious situation for failing to manage their victory well when they held sway.
“It is true that we, PDP, did not manage our victory well, and APC now came with hope that they are going to bring change, but incidentally, the change they brought to us is a negative change, and the people are feeling so bad, terribly bad.
“It is only the Nigerian culture that the person who is not doing well will insist on continuing. So those that are defecting to APC have a personal agenda but not for the people they are representing,” he declared.
