‘Stop making excuses, face governance,’ PDP tells President

The PDP also said that Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were well aware of the economic problems in the country before they assumed office yet they insisted on making bogus promises to Nigerians.

This was contained in a statement released on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh.

It reads:

“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 pretences.”

“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. We recall that on May 5, 2015, twenty-four days before his inauguration, President Buhari at a meeting with APC leaders in Abuja opened the excuse galore when he expressed his nervousness to deliver in office, adducing that ‘Rome was not built in a day’.”

“We also recall that in their attempt to find an escape route in one of their bogus campaign promises, the APC denied that the President ever promised Nigerians that they will end insurgency two months after inauguration but had to swallow their words after the PDP confronted them with the April 22, 2015 CNN interview where Buhari made that promise.”

“Indeed, we empathize with the President knowing that the confusion and clear lack of direction in his party have not helped matters, but we urge him to rise up to the challenge, take urgent steps and disentangle himself from the selfish and unpatriotic tendencies of APC leaders, especially given the fact that Nigerians gave him a mandate for which they will continue to hold him accountable.”

“Finally, the PDP restates that it is eager to see the APC and the President unveil their economic roadmap and blueprint for governance so as to enable us through robust opposition, provide credible alternatives and options for their policies and programmes in the overall interest of our dear nation.”

Buhari had said on Monday, June 22, that he had inherited a virtually empty treasury from the administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan.