Bisi Akande: APC not like PDP — opposition party has military mindset

Bisi Akande, former interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the ruling party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are miles apart on the ideological spectrum. 

The former governor of Osun said this on ‘Inside Sources’, a Channels Television programme anchored by Laolu Akande, ex-spokesperson to Yemi Osinbajo, immediate-past vice-president. 

Akande said the opposition party was formed by “agents and contractors” of the military in the 1990s, adding that the brains behind the formation of the party were military-inclined.

Soldiers in Nigeria returned to the barracks in 1999 following the death of Sani Abacha, a military dictator.

The PDP was formed in August of 1998 and took over the reins of the nation’s leadership in 1999 — kick-starting Nigeria’s fourth republic. 

“APC and PDP are not alike. They are not alike because they come from different backgrounds. PDP was coming from the background of the military incursion into governance,” Akande said. 

“The original leadership of the PDP were the soldiers who didn’t want to leave power or the agents of the military like the contractors who the military were using when they were in power.

“Just military inclined minds formed the PDP. Go and look at the history of PDP, I wrote a book and I showed the formation of all the political parties before the advent of the APC.”

Akande said “the APC is coming from the background of the opposition to the inheritors of the military in governance”.

He added that the ruling party’s background of discourse, examination and review is in stark contrast with the PDP’s “bundle of impunity and manipulation of laws and regulations”.

“Each leader works according to the way his brain works. But a civil administration needs a collective understanding of what should be done and that’s through constant debate,” he added.

“Military has no room for debate. You obey the last order. What the master says is what is right. The master might be a fool but whatever command he gives, you must obey.

“The totality of what the military governance is, is impunity in power. So the PDP came with that background and they ruled like that.

“The military has no room for finicky management of manipulation of laws and regulations.”