The leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday apologised to Nigerians for its numerous mistakes while in power.
The party was defeated by the All Progressives Congress, APC, which was the opposition party, in the 2015 general election, following loss of confidence in the PDP by the Nigerian populace.
In a keynote address he delivered on Monday at an event in Abuja, Uche Secondus, national chairman of the PDP said that despite its efforts to make Nigeria a better place, PDP made some mistakes.
His speech is titled Nation-building: Resetting The Agenda.
His words: “I hereby admit that the People’s Democratic Party made many mistakes and it is human, we are not spirits.
“The ability to admit is a key for moving forward, it is a key for learning. We admit that we have made several mistakes. We also admit that by the grace of God, we have passed through all our challenges, with experience that no other party can boast of.
“Consequently, we were roundly sanctioned by Nigerians, occasioning our loss at the polls in 2015.
“Let me seize this opportunity to apologise for our past mistakes, we have learnt from our mistakes unlike the APC.”
Secondus also spoke on the need to make nation-building top priority.
Read also: APC: Tinubu, Akande absent at national caucus meeting
According to him, the present poor economic situation under the ruling APC, called for it.
He added that the division along religious and ethnic lines in recent time had also made it very necessary to focus on nation-building.
“When a country is in such precarious situations, nation-building becomes absolutely inevitable,” he said.
He spoke further on the experiences of his party and how it had planned to make things better.
Said he: “Realising the importance of free, credible elections in the life of any democracy, the PDP embarked on massive electoral reforms that ensured the conduct of free, fair credible elections and saw a ruling party lose in an election, successfully transcended power top the opposition, it is the first time it is happening in our country and even an example for the entire continent.
“Even though sad about our loss, we as a party are immensely proud of what we consider our most significant achievement of willingly transferring power to opposition when the time came, thus giving a lie to all predictions that Nigeria will break up in 2015.
“Let me alert the current ruling party that no less is expected of them and we hope that they will heed to that advice.
“Only a party like ours, truly founded on strong democratic principles and ideals, ultimately drawing its inspiration from the people hence its motto, ‘PowerTo The People’, could have submitted to the superior will of the people and we did just that in 2015.
“We must humble ourselves before God who created us and tell the truth. We can’t continue as a nation of lies – what are we going to give to our children?
“On behalf of my colleagues and members of this party, we apologize to Nigerians that we have made our mistakes and we are ready to correct them and to build on a new note, on a new agenda because experience is the best teacher and no other party has it.”
