President Muhammadu Buhari
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and his party have been accused of using and dumping Almajiris.
The Peoples Democratic Party has accused President Muhammadu Buhari
and the All Progressives Congress of betraying Almajirai and Nigeria’s
poor and vulnerable after using them to grab power in 2015.
The claim was made on Monday in Abuja by the National Publicity
Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbodiyan, said this in a statement in
Abuja, on Monday.
The party noted that the APC and its regime had continued to show
their true colours especially as manifested in the neglect and
dehumanising treatment they had meted out to poor and vulnerable
Nigerians since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The statement read in part, “The PDP notes that APC’s disdain
and desertion of our citizens had further exposed it as a deceitful
party which used lies, propaganda and false promises to mislead the
people in 2015 to denounce a system of governance which had their
interest at heart and worked day and night to ensure a better life for
them.
“Today, the APC and its government have succeeded in wrecking
the lives of ordinary Nigerians; stolen their common patrimony; rendered
many homeless, turned their joy into sadness, hope into hopelessness,
fortune into abject poverty; reneged on all their enticing promises,
swindled and abandoned our citizens to a life of misery.
“From Katsina to Lagos, Kano to Edo, Kaduna to Osun, Yobe to
Ekiti; Plateau to Kogi and all the places where the APC has left
footprints at the federal and state levels, the downtrodden people have
been exploited and now abandoned; treated by the APC as sub-humans in
their own country.”
It also accused APC leaders of taking delight in insulting Nigerian
youths who they denied job opportunities calling them lazy and
unemployable.
Ologbodiyan noted that the same APC derided the then PDP
administration which took the initiative towards solving the almajirai
problem once and for all.
He further said, “Unfortunately, what we witness today are
total reneging on these promises, degradation of citizens, hunger and
starvation, intimidation of dissenting voices, untold corruption,
neglect of our infrastructure, annexation of electoral and judicial
system, violation of human rights, in addition to escalation of
insurgency and bloodletting while the President, who promised to lead
from the front, recedes very far into the luxury and safety of Aso
Presidential villa.
“Nigerians can recall how the PDP championed the cause of the
downtrodden, established Almajirai schools, the e-wallet initiatives for
rural farmers, built new universities, revamped our economy, overhauled
our health care system, established the National Health Insurance
Scheme, revamped the mortgage system to give Nigerians access to own
homes and expanded the political space to promote youth and women
participation in governance, among others.”
The PDP accused the APC of reversing all those gains within a five
year period. It maintained that the COVID-19 pandemic had further
exposed the APC as a party without plans for Nigerians, which only came
to grab power to enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary Nigerians.
The party urged Nigerians not to despair, but to rally among
themselves, help each other and ensure that a party like APC, did not
come to power at any level after the end of this tenure.
“On our own part, the PDP as a party, will continue to stand
with Nigerians, especially the downtrodden and remain committed to
protecting their interests at all times,” the statement added.
In response, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said, “The
baseless accusations of the PDP have become familiar. However, let them
know that the almajirai system is not an APC policy, he should talk to
the states.”
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