The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Federal Government for attacking state governors elected on the platform of the PDP for speaking out against the alleged failures of President Bola Tinubu and the APC government which have plunged Nigerians into excruciating suffering.
National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba disclosed this in a statement.
What PDP governors said
Recall that the PDP governors had asked the APC-led Federal Government to throw in the towel if it had no solution to the pervasive economic hardship in the country.
The governors made the call in a Saturday statement signed by CID Maduabum, Director-General of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
APC hits back
However, the ruling APC faulted the PDP governors’ call, charging them to practise what they preach by resigning.
Reacting through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the APC said the PDP governors were basking in willful blindness to their constitutional responsibilities.
“Like all citizens, governors are entitled to free speech. However, that right must be exercised against a standard of respectability and reasonableness.
:Reckless utterances capable of inflaming passions and social upheaval must be avoided.
“Likening Nigeria to Venezuela as the PDP governors did in a recent communique, even under the prevailing challenging economic and security contexts of Nigeria, is unhelpful and smacks of unrighteous indignation,” the APC said.
PDP defends its governors
In a counter-reaction, the PDP said APC and the Tinubu administration were responsible for the current biting economic hardship and surging wave of insecurity across the country as they are completely overwhelmed and lack the capacity and competence to lead a nation like Nigeria.
“By seeking to allocate President Tinubu’s statutory duties to state governors, the APC has unambiguously admitted that it foisted on Nigerians an incompetent President who cannot guarantee security and whose administration has devastated our national economy resulting in extreme hunger, hopelessness and desperation as evident in the protests, agitation and rising spate of suicide across the country,” the main opposition party said.
The PDP said every Nigerian is lamenting the terrible situation which Tinubu’s “ill-informed and ill-implemented policies have brought upon the nation”.
According to the party, Tinubu is directly in charge of security and the national economic policies including administration of petroleum resources as Minister of Petroleum Affairs; other national revenues and “cannot transfer his incompetence and failure to other tiers of government which have no control over national security, fiscal and monetary policies, which mismanagement by President Tinubu’s government has crippled our economy”.
“Moreover, state governors have no control over the pervading corruption and continuing monumental treasury-looting under President Tinubu who has failed to take concrete measures to curb the malaise.
“It is an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians that instead of charging the government it formed to live up to its billings, the APC is seeking a sordid and depraved approach to divert public attention from its failures.
“From its diversionary statement, it is clear that the APC is jittery and afraid that it has been exposed following revelations and reports in the public space that its leaders are involved in multiple scams and fraudulent deals through which they continue to siphon funds meant for the wellbeing of the people resulting in the unbearable hardship being experienced by Nigerians today,” the PDP said.
The PDP said the complicity of APC leaders apparently informed why they have remained silent in the face of the “incompetence, monumental treasury-looting and corruption in the Tinubu administration”.
The party advised Tinubu and the APC to face their “self-inflicted woes and heed the patriotic call of the PDP governors who are providing quality leadership with life-enhancing projects and programmes in their various States in line with the people-oriented manifesto and policy thrust of the PDP”.