PDP chairman, Secondus, says APC is more corrupt than his party

The PDP won the presidency during the return of democracy in 1999 and led Nigeria for 16 years through three presidents before losing the Presidential Villa to President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC in 2015.

While speaking during an interview on Arise News on Tuesday, December 11, 2018, Secondus said corruption existed before PDP but that the party fought it more faithfully than the current administration.

When asked why Nigerians should vote for the PDP in the 2019 general elections even though the party lost in 2015 because it was deemed to be corrupt and incompetent, he said the problem existed before the party.

He said, "This is a perception that has been going on for some time, but you can see clearly the difference between PDP rule and APC rule. I think they're more corrupt.

"The issue of corruption is all over the country even before the advent of the PDP so it's not an issue where you pass the ball. Let's not even go there."

Secondus further noted that all the anti-corruption agencies in the country were established when the PDP was in power.

He said, "All the anti-corruption institutions were established by the PDP. When President Obasanjo came into power in 1999, corruption was there but to address the issue of corruption, he had to establish ICPC. It was not done by APC.

"He has to establish EFCC that's being used now wrongly against the opposition. And, of course, if you are in the opposition and cross over to APC, immediately you're saved and it becomes a safe haven for you."

Even though one of Buhari's three main campaign promises was to fight corruption, he has been accused of using anti-graft agencies to harass the opposition while shielding people in the APC accused of corruption from justice.

This is despite the fact that two former governors, Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye, were imprisoned earlier this year due to corruption-related offences despite being members of the APC at the time of conviction. They committed the crimes while they served as governors on the platform of the PDP.

President Muhammadu Buhari ece-auto-gen

Despite this, President Buhari has received knocks for the failure of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute Babachir Lawal whom Buhari sacked as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in 2017 after he was investigated by a panel headed by vice president, Yemi Osinbajo. Lawal has been accused of misappropriating funds earmarked for the welfare of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) through the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).

Other top officials in Buhari's administration have also been accused of several corrupt acts without much being done about it by federal agencies under the command of the president.

According to the 2017 corruption perception index (CPI) conducted by Transparency International, Nigeria ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The country dropped 12 places from its position of 136th least corrupt country in 2016 to 148th.

Secondus promised that the PDP has learned from its 16 years of experience at the federal level and rebranded and repositioned itself to return to leadership in 2019.

"We must fight it (corruption) legally under the international rule of law or our own rule of law and the best practices all over, but not brutally," he said.

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, is the PDP's presidential candidate and deemed to be Buhari's biggest challenger for the nation's highest political office in 2019.

Atiku Abubakar with PDP chairman, Uche Secondus ece-auto-gen

How Atiku plans to fight corruption

In a policy document which he released to the public on November 19, 2018, Atiku said corruption poses critical challenges to Nigeria's economic and social development.

The former vice president noted that despite the establishment of relevant anti-graft agencies by previous governments, the present one, led by Buhari, has been accused of serious nepotism, partisanship and lack of political will and the impartiality to deal decisively with corruption.

To combat corruption, Atiku said his government would focus on building strong anti-corruption institutions that cannot be manipulated by personalities, while also establishing a culture of accountability, effectiveness, efﬁciency and transparency.

He said he would also ensure rigorous enforcement of judicious use of public resources, with zero tolerance for nepotism, corruption and poor management.

To make perpetrators of corruption serve as deterrents to others, Atiku promised that he would ensure adequate punishment is meted out to whoever is caught.

He said he would do this by ensuring that judgments on corruption cases are fully followed through and enforced by the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

He also said he would create special tribunals to try corruption cases sent to it by the relevant anti-corruption agencies as well as speed up judgments on outstanding cases of corruption and ensuring plea bargains are not abused.