NEWS: PDP to Buhari-Stop offering excuses

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as “evasive, diversionary and preemptive,” the present government’s “pile up of excuses” for possible failure in delivering on its campaign promises to Nigerians.

The party was reacting to revelations by President Muhammadu Buhari that the last PDP led administration left an empty treasury, occasioned by unbridled corruption, impunity and mismanagement of public resources.

But in a statement issued on Tuesday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party said Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were privy to the nation’s dwindling economy.

According to the PDP, the economic crisis was triggered by global economic downturn occasioned by fall in international oil prices, even before the start of the last electioneering campaigns.

The party accused Buhari and the APC of choosing to deceive Nigerians with bogus promises, only to now resort to excuses after using the promises to secure power at the centre.

The PDP said it noted with dismay, President Buhari’s statement on Monday that Nigerians should not expect much from his first 100 days in office over claims that he met virtually an empty treasury and huge debts.

The statement said such claims only underlined the fact that the present administration was really not equipped to face the challenges of governance.

The PDP continued: “While we restate our resolve to engage only in credible and issue based opposition, we want the President and the APC to note that their plea for patience from Nigerians does not arise, because ab-initio, there has not been any indication that they are actually serious and determined to deliver on their campaign promises upon which they rode to power.

“Of course Nigerians are willing to support and cooperate with the President, but we are worried that the pictures emerging from his presidency and his party do not in any way inspire hope in the citizenry, especially as they have continued to show that theirs is ostensibly a matter of obtaining power by false pretenses.

“President Buhari and the APC must know that Nigerians did not give them the mandate to engage in frivolous excuses and pleas but to hit the ground running with solutions and quick fixes they promised during the campaigns.

“We ask, is President Buhari’s statement an admission of poor knowledge of national and international economic affairs or does it underscore the lack of capacity and skills by the administration to effectively harness and galvanize resources and potential inherent in Nigeria which has already been nurtured as Africa’s largest economy and one of the fasted growing in the world.

“Even if Nigerians decide to wait endlessly, we wonder how much the President can achieve amidst the flip-flops from his presidency and cacophony of interests from his party leaders struggling to enlarge their selfish political and economic frontiers.

“How can one reconcile President Buhari’s statement with the recent ridiculous and misleading claim by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that this administration has achieved in three weeks what the immediate past administration did not achieve in five years?

“Since after their electoral victory, the APC and the President have continued to expose their lack of commitment towards their campaign promises.”