The
Peoples Democratic Party has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to leave
office immediately.
But
before quitting, the former ruling party asked the President to return the
country to how he met it when he assumed office on May 29, 2015.
The
spokesperson and a member of the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Prince
Dayo Adeyeye, said this in a statement he signed in Abuja on Wednesday.
The
former minister of state for works said his party was not happy with the state
of affairs in the country.
He
specifically mentioned the statement credited to the Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun, that, “recession is a word.”
Adeyeye
said, “Is this statement as a result of ignorance, lack of patriotism or
in-line with President Buhari’s comment that his ministers are noise makers?
“For
the record, recession is characterised as a period of negative economic growth
for two consecutive quarters, given rise to high rate of unemployment,
fall in output, increase in government borrowing, etc.
“Following
this understanding, Nigeria’s economy is already near depression. The
crass ineptitude and lukewarm-attitude of this All Progressives Congress
government is no longer tolerable, and therefore, we are calling on President
Buhari and his team to return Nigeria to its state of booming economy before
they assumed office in May, 2015, and then quit immediately to allow other
capable leaders revive our ailing economy.”
Adeyeye
said about three airlines, local and international, and some banks had
allegedly suspended operations and sent their members of staff on an indefinite
leave due to the poor state of Nigeria’s economy.
He
said Nigerians were aware that the PDP government invested heavily in most of
the nation’s airports, an action he said resulted to alleged ‘facelift’ and
improved operations through remodelling, construction of new airports,
refurbishing and equipping of the local and international airports to
meet the best practices in the aviation industry.
He
said the APC’s administration had frittered away all the good policies and
programmes which he claimed the PDP put in place, thereby bringing down the
aviation sector in the country amongst other catastrophes he said the new
leadership had caused.
He
said the President should sit down to work instead of constantly blaming past
governments at all time.
He
said, “What Nigerians want from this administration are positive results and
not resorting to throwing tantrums on the PDP at every given opportunity.
“Our
call for the President to return the country to how he met it in 2015 is
justified on the following grounds.
“In
2015 when the President came to power, a bag of rice was selling at N7,000, but
now, it is above N20,000; a ‘mudu’ of beans was N150 then and now, it is N500;
one US dollar was then trading for N197 but now it is over N400.
“Also,
a litre of fuel was N87 but now is N145; cost of transportation and other
services had skyrocketed. Given our observations since the inception of this
government, they have nothing to offer and as such, quitting will be a solution
because nobody can give what he/she does not have. The APC has failed.”
Adeyeye
called on Nigerians to recall President Buhari’s purported “body language” at
the beginning of his administration and reiterated that governance “is a
serious business and not about someone’s body language’ and de-marketing
strategies of Mr. President while ‘globetrotting’.
“When
this government came to power in May 2015 riding on the achievements of the
previous PDP administration, President Buhari’s handlers and his party, the
APC, claimed it was his ‘body language’ that brought some positive changes the
country was witnessing at that time.
“So,
we want to know what are the results of the so-called ‘body language’?”
He
concluded that the earlier the President and his team quit, the better for the
country, saying “there is no better time than now to make this call for the
President to return the country to how he met it and quit.
“He
can even quit right away for a more experienced team to take over.”
Adeyeye
appealed to members of his party and other well-meaning Nigerians to keep
praying to God to intervene so that the country could quickly recover from the
ailing economy.
The
Director-General of the Voice
of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, who was until his appointment, the
South-East Zonal spokesman for the APC, has dismissed the PDP’s call for
Buhari’s resignation.
Okechukwu
said the PDP was simply trying to make Nigerians forget the 16 years of its
maladministration.
He
said, “On May 13, 2010, the Jonathan administration announced the contract
award of three refineries which he called the greenfield refinery. One was to
be located in Bayelsa, one in Kogi and one in Lagos, if those refineries were
constructed, the billions of naira we are losing through vandalism of our
pipelines would not be the order of the day.
“If
his wife, Patience, was wise enough to use the money she used to build a hotel
in Yenagoa for the refinery, we wouldn’t have been where we are today.
“The
Nigerian people know where the rain started beating us. As the Petroleum Task
Force chairman, Buhari, with the meagre resources at his disposal, was able to
build more kilometres of roads than the PDP did in 16 years, even though they
had more money.
“Are
they saying Nigeria should return to the years where Boko Haram held all of us
to ransom and the looting of the public treasury was the order of the day?”
Source:The
Punch
Tags
Politics