The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the presidency for allegedly abandoning governance to be the mouthpiece of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
PDP stated this in a Friday statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in reaction to a presidential statement calling the party the “single greatest obstacle to good governance” in Nigeria.
The presidency in the Thursday statement signed by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu further accused PDP of meddling in APC’s internal affairs.
But the main opposition party said pressure from the presidency would not make it abandon its “solemn duty to hold President Buhari and his APC accountable for their misrule which has brought untold poverty, hunger, violence, bloodletting and division in the land.”
The party noted that the presidential statement further confirmed PDP’s stance that the APC has “become comatose”.
“The Presidency response to the PDP further shows that President Muhammadu Buhari has abandoned governance to engage in threnody for his dysfunctional APC,” the PDP said.
“Our party also notes that a reading of the reaction from the Presidency further strengthens the fact that the Buhari’s administration has become uncoordinated and ill-equipped for governance.
“The statement also portrays a Presidency lacking in confidence that its party, the APC, can still perform its roles.
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“The Buhari Presidency ought to have known that it is too late in the day for concealments or gagging of Nigerians as its failures, incompetence and lack of confidence in itself and the APC are manifest at all turns.
“Moreover, the Presidency should know that the PDP, as a party that resonates with Nigerians and on which our democracy and national cohesion is anchored, has a solemn duty to hold President Buhari and his APC accountable for their misrule which has brought untold poverty, hunger, violence, bloodletting and division in the land.”
According to the statement, PDP said it has the responsibility to hold Buhari and the APC accountable for the promises they made to Nigerians in 2015.
The party lamented that these promises have remained “unfulfilled as they were only used by the APC as carrots to grab power and sit in oppression over our people”.
“Now that the Presidency has abandoned governance to speak for the dying APC, we charge it to place President Buhari on the seat to, in addition to the failures of his administration, also take responsibility for the woes of the APC.
“In doing this, the PDP charges Mr. President to explain how he and his party wrecked our economy from one of the fastest growing in the world to a shameful world poverty capital in a space of four years and brought so much hopelessness that compatriots now resort to suicide, infanticide, human trafficking and slavery mission abroad for survival. The answer is incompetence and dishonesty!
“The Buhari Presidency and APC should explain why they have been pursuing polices that threaten the unity, stability and national cohesion of our dear nation; policies and body language that promote division, violence, abuse of human rights, violation of rule of law, attack on tenets and institutions of democracy. The answer is intolerance, power drunkenness and narrow-mindedness!
“The Buhari Presidency and the APC should explain why they relish in inflicting hardship, stimulating high costs and unemployment in the land through exclusionism, harsh taxes and increased tariffs, while failing to recover the over N15 trillion stolen by APC leaders, including the N9 trillion exposed by the leaked NNPC memo, funds which are meant for the welfare of Nigerians. The answer is insensitivity, selfishness and ingrained corruption in the APC and the Buhari administration
“The fact remains that the atrocities of the APC stare it in the face and Nigerians, including President Buhari, know that the APC is not in the card for 2023,” the statement read in part.
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