PDP says Buhari leads most corrupt, incompetent administration

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has branded President Muhammadu Buharis administration as the most corrupt and incompetent.

In a statement signed by the PDP's National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Monday, April 29, 2019, the main opposition party described the president's recent trip to the United Kingdom as unconstitutional.

The president left for London on Thursday, April 25 for a 10-day private visit without transmitting powers to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The presidency has defended the president's position saying that he can give orders from anywhere in the world.

However, the PDP described the president's action as "an act of dereliction" which seeks to "vacate our constitutional order and foist an authoritarian system on our country".

The opposition party said the president's failure to transmit power to Osinbajo shows his authoritarian tendency to not trust other government functionaries.

"What else, beside an authoritarian propensity, can explain why the Buhari Presidency relegated our Constitutional Order by declaring the application of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which directs that the President transmits power whenever he is travelling out of the country on vacation, as a mere 'convention'," the statement read.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan [News Express] Pulse Nigeria

The party alleged that the president's attempt to circumvent the constitution is in service of a cabal that has made the country miserable on many fronts.

The party said, "The import of this relegation of Section 145 is also a clear absence of a constitutional command structure which leaves our nation at the mercy of the extremely corrupt, vicious and anti-people cabal with whom President Buhari presided over the most corrupt and most incompetent administration, which wrecked our economy, divided our nation and opened her up for escalated insecurity.

"Such dereliction at the high levels emboldens bandits, bolsters insurgents and fuels cruel acts such as extra-judicial killing, illegal arrests, detention of innocent citizens, constitutional violations, attack on institutions of democracy as well as reckless looting of our national treasury by members of the cabal because they know that 'nothing will happen'."

The party urged Nigerians to unite in condemning the president's act of impunity, noting that the country is in dire need of a legitimate, people-oriented, responsible and responsive government that will foster respect for rule of law.

Buharis controversial London trips

President Buhari is a frequent flyer to the UK [Presidency] Pulse Nigeria

President Buhari has been a frequent visitor to the United Kingdom since he was first inaugurated in 2015. Most of the time, he's travelled to London to seek medical attention with his foreign doctors.

In 2017, he spent a combined 154 days in London on two separate medical visits to treat an undisclosed illness, prompting concerns about how fit he was to be president.

Since then, he's been to London a few times to check in with his doctors, including another 10-day vacation in the UK capital in August 2018.

The president's health issues were a sticking point used against him during his campaign for re-election but the 76-year-old won a second term in the February 23 presidential election.

The PDP and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, have filed a petition against Buhari's victory.