Peoples Democratic Party has urged Nigerians to join hands in prayers for President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress because the present administration is finding it difficult to get its bearings.
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement in Abuja said “We urge Nigerians to join hands in prayers and offer useful suggestions to Buhari and the APC because with what we have seen in the last 30 days, the present administration is finding it very difficult to get its bearings right while showing no inclination towards implementing its numerous campaign promises for which they were voted into office at the centre.
“We are deeply worried that the president who promised to unveil his cabinet two weeks after his inauguration, has not been able to decide on key appointments such as ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), a Chief of Staff and advisers in key sectors of the economy.
“This is more so as the delay has brought government business in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to a dangerous standstill with coordination of important policies vested on ministers and the SGF now in tatters while the system drifts. This situation also creates loopholes through which overzealous persons around that President can connive with unscrupulous elements in the bureaucracy to syphon public resources in addition to possibly misleading the president to violate due process by spending beyond and outside his statutory limits.
“The situation is taking its toll on the economy, which has in the last 30 days witnessed unprecedented decline with a terrifying crippling of foreign and domestic investments including activities in the money and capital market sectors. Under President Buhari, the stock market has lost over N238 billion while the All-Share Index fell by 849.87 basis points as at June 19.
“In security, apart from the directive to relocate the countre terrorism command center to Borno State and seeking assistance from foreigners, no other concrete step has been taken in the fight against insurgency which the President in his April 22, 2015 CNN interview promised to end within his two months in office.
“Instead, the anti-terrorism effort has completely lost steam in the last 30 days, with insurgents, who had already been pushed to the verge of surrender in the Sambisa forest by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now surging back and spreading into the country.
“Finally, while we remind the president and the APC that their campaign promises are bonds which must be fulfilled, we urge him to use the next 10 days to set up his government by naming his ministers, the SGF and advisers in critical sectors as Nigerians did not vote for a sole administrator but for a democratic government.”
However, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in response to the statement said “It is amusing to read what the National Publicity Secretary of the defeated PDP, Metuh, considers a 30 days appraisal of the Buhari administration.
“He wants Nigerians to join hands in prayers for the government, so that things would begin to move.
“What he does not know is that Nigerians had long formed such coalition. They are hands in hands, and that was what gave victory to President Buhari in the March 28, 2015 poll.
“They had teamed up to uproot an administration that had brought the country to her knees, and was about to tip her off the precipice. And Nigerians have resolved that never would they allow any government to divide them along regional, religious and ethnic fault lines again.
“The Buhari administration is naturally contemplative because there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way PDP ran the country, particularly in the immediate past dispensation.
“That is why the Augean Stable is being cleaned now, and it requires scrupulous and painstaking planning. Across all sectors, our national life was devalued, and it takes meticulousness and sure-footedness to repair all the breaches. This, the Buhari administration will deliver.”