Nigeria’s leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to use the May 29 speech commemorating his six years in power to accept his failure in governance and desist from further exasperating Nigerians with his usual prepared text of false performance claims and empty promises.
In a statement by the party Spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP also berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) for planning to beguile Nigerians again with a planned fictitious performance campaign, when, in reality, there is no landmark achievement it initiated and completed for the benefit of Nigerians in last six years.
According to PDP, “President Buhari and the APC must know that Nigerians are no longer interested in their stage-managed Presidential addresses as well as the circus show of their so-called APC Legacy Awareness Campaign, particularly in the face of the horrendous situation they have plunged our nation.
“This is because, in the last six years, President Buhari’s speeches have always been litanies of false claims, empty promises and lame excuses for failures, which the APC, in its penchant for lies, propaganda and beguilement, wants to accentuate with their legacy awareness campaign.
“If indeed the Buhari Presidency and the APC have any achievement to showcase, would it be organising an awareness campaign to seek the understanding of Nigerians for its mass failures?
“It is trite wisdom that their works ought to be speaking for themselves like those of the PDP administration which are still being seen today in every sphere of our national life.
“If they have anything to show, would President Buhari be begging that history should be kind to him for his failures? Would he go to faraway Paris and France to declare that his administration is being plagued by ill-luck?
“Our party vehemently rejects this attempt by APC leaders to claim that their party failed because of the challenges that have befallen our nation when in reality, the APC and the Buhari Presidency should be held responsible for their own failures.”
‘Provide answers’
The PDP urged President Buhari and the APC to provide answers to why they have failed to forcefully condemn acts of terrorism in the country, adding that the government should also give reasons for failure to take decisive steps to vanquish terrorists, bandits and vandals ravaging the nation.
“They must provide answers on how they wrecked our once-thriving economy and turned our nation into the poverty capital of the world with a 33.3 unemployment rate and over 60 million Nigerians losing their means of livelihood in a space of six years.
“It is imperative for President Buhari and APC to note that Nigerians are already aware that Mr President and his party are responsible for the woes that had befallen our nation and no amount of false performance claims or so-called legacy awareness campaign can sway the people,” PDP stressed.
Presidency’s claims
The Presidency, on Friday, had said when the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari breasts the tape in another two years, the applause would be resounding, even from the worst of sceptics.
A presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said this in a statement titled ‘The Buhari Administration at 6: Counting the Blessings One by One’.
The statement catalogued the achievements of the incumbent federal government led by President Buhari in the last six years.
Adesina said the administration had recorded giant strides in various sectors of the economy that would be recognised by “those who are dispassionate and fair-minded, not beclouded by political partisanship and undue cynicism.”