Hehehe....PRECISELY 59 days after President
Muhammadu Buhari assumed power, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party
on Sunday listed many ‘sins’ the Federal Government under the President
had committed and said Buhari’s government lacked direction.
Among the sins of the Buhari’s
government, the PDP said, included alleged failure by the President to
achieve anything meaningful during his just-concluded US trip and
alleged maltreatment of Patience, wife of ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan.
At a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday,
the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said events after
Buhari’s visit to the US indicated that neither the President nor his
party, the All Progressives Congress, had learnt anything from the trip.
Metuh said, “Now that the visit has come and gone, our fear is that nothing whatsoever has been learnt or gained.
“What we continue to receive as a nation
have been embarrassing disagreements, accusations and
counter-accusations, blames and denials on very important issues due to
lack of tact and skill in the management of state matters by the APC-led
administration.
“It is disheartening that rather than
secure any sort of tangible gain for the fight against terrorism, which
has lost steam under the APC watch, with insurgents, who were pushed to
the verge of surrender by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now
surging back and spreading into the country, we get nothing but
exchanges and disagreements between the Presidency and their American
hosts.
“This is not only embarrassing but also a
worrisome indication of crass ineptitude in the handling of
international affairs on the part of the present administration.”
He urged the government to settle down
and face the business of governance and the fight against insurgency
with every sense of seriousness, especially given Buhari’s promise in
his April 2, 2015 CNN interview to end the scourge two months after his
inauguration.
Reacting, the All Progressives Congress,
said that the PDP would be unable to provide any worthwhile opposition
to the Federal Government if its spokesman continued to issue empty
statements.
‘’Today’s statement is the most tortuous
yet by the PDP and, honestly, sounds more like a compendium of beer
parlour gossips and side talks than a serious criticism of a sitting
government,’’ the APC said in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by
its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
‘‘To be in opposition does not mean you
have to constitute yourself to a nuisance by rushing to the press with
all sorts of hot air statements. It is the quality, rather than the
frequency, of your interventions that makes you relevant as an
opposition in a democracy,’’ the party said
Metuh meanwhile also criticised the
statement made by the President while in the USA, in which he was quoted
as saying that he would administer the country on the basis of the
voting pattern in the last general elections.
He also said that the business community
in Nigeria and across the world noted what he described as the
disgraceful treatment allegedly meted out to some Nigerian bankers and
captains of industries by Buhari during his US visit.
While agreeing that the President has the
right to decide those to be on his entourage on such an important
official visit, he nevertheless said that the way Buhari allegedly
shamed and walked out Nigerian businessmen had sent a wrong signal to
international investors and posed great threats to inflow of direct
foreign investments into the country.
“These Nigerian businessmen were rejected
by their President only for them to be valued by other Presidents of
African nations who led them into a meeting with President Barrack Obama
in their own countries on account of their investments in those
nations,” he added.
Metuh also said that his party noted the
alleged embarrassment caused by the absence of an economic team for
healthy and informed discussion at the meeting with officials of the US
government.
He said that whereas President Obama came
to the meeting with a formidable team of experts and key federal
officials, President Buhari had in his entourage some APC governors,
who, he said, owe salaries and billions of naira in debts.
This action, he said, robbed the nation the benefits and gains of the discussions.
Metuh said that since the President had
insisted on running his government as a sole administrator, making
important decisions on national affairs without recourse to relevant
statutory arms and organs of government, the PDP was being compelled to
demand that the administration publish its expenses since assumption of
office in May, in keeping with its much harped stance on transparency.
“We make this demand because since the
APC took office, the nation’s financial system in the absence of
statutory functionaries has been enmeshed in confusion, controversy and
fertile atmosphere for financial sleazes,” he added.
Metuh also alleged that his party was in
possession of information that the Presidency acting alone, has gone
into discussions with the World Bank for a loan of $2.1 bn for purposes
unknown to Nigerians.
He asked, “What is the loan for? What are
the terms and who are those working the papers? Who are the people to
decide on how the money will be spent? Is it true that the $2.1bn loan
is meant to pay back huge contributions for the APC Presidential
campaign expenses?
“If truly this government is transparent,
it should come out clear on this loan as well as publicise details of
its expenditure in the last two months.”
The opposition party’s spokesperson also
condemned what he called the recent humiliation of Patience Jonathan at
the Port Harcourt airport, where he said the ex-President’s wife was
refused access to the protocol lounge based on “an order from Abuja”.
He said this was not the case when
Jonathan was in power, during which he said all former Presidents and
their spouses had unhindered access to the protocol lounge.
Metuh refused to take questions after the briefing.
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