By Daniel Kanu
Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday called on the United States President, Donald Trump, to cancel an invitation extended to President Muhammadu Buhari to visit the U.S.
PDP said its request was predicated on what it called damning report by the United States government, “which further exposed the festering corruption, impunity, gross violation of rights and killings under the watch of the Buhari Presidency.”
The PDP said the invitation should be jettisoned until the issues raised in the report are addressed.
President Buhari is expected to travel to Washington on April 30 on the invitation of President Trump. The scheduled meeting will be the second between the two leaders. Last year September, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, during a luncheon Trump held for a select group of African leaders.
But while the president is still preparing for the trip, the United States Department of State issued a damning assessment of Nigeria under his leadership in its 2017 Country Report on Human Rights released last Friday in Washington D.C.
In the 48-page report posted on the website of the State Department, the U.S. government said impunity remained widespread at all levels of government in Nigeria, further noting that the Buhari-led administration lacked transparency.
A copy of the report obtained by TheNiche, added that government officials engaged in massive corruption.
Corruption, the report said, was not limited to government officials but very rampant among the security agencies.
The report stated: “Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
“Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services.”
On Tuesday, the PDP challenged “President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to quickly respond to the damning report by the United States government, which further exposed the festering corruption, impunity, gross violation of rights and killings under the watch of the Buhari Presidency.”
The statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, said:
“This report by the US Department of State further vindicates our stand that the Buhari-led APC government is overtly and inherently corrupt, vengeful and has been engaging in smear campaign against the opposition to divert public attention from its atrocities.
“The US report directly indicted the APC-led Federal Government of official corruption, secretiveness, high-handedness, restriction of personal freedom and rights, executive influence on the judiciary, wanton arrests, detention and persecution of opposition as well as extra-judicial and arbitrary killing of citizens by state controlled security forces.
“The report also directly discredited President Buhari’s fight against corruption as targeted against opposition members while government officials and APC members, openly indicted of corruption, especially those close to Mr. President, are not prosecuted.
“From the report, the world can now see that the PDP has not been raising false alarm on the unbearable savagery and massive corruption of the APC administration, which has proven to be the worst in the history of our country.
“The world has now known why the APC-led Federal Government has been fixated at silencing opposition voices using the tyrannical instruments of intimidation, arrest, detention, trumped-up charges and media trial while emasculating free speech and press freedom in our country, all designed to hide their atrocities from the world.
“Today, it is clear to the world why Nigerians are leaving their country in droves to other parts of the world even at the peril of slavery and death.
“Under President Buhari and the APC, our country is in great pain. Our constitution appears to have been technically suspended. Citizens now live in fear; bloodletting by marauders and extra judicial killings have become the order of the day; billions of naira meant for the rehabilitation of victims of insurgency are daily frittered by government officials while fundamental human rights have become essential commodities.
“While we urge Nigerians to remain calm, we are surprised that the Buhari Presidency has suddenly become dumb in the face of obviously overwhelming allegations, believing that the tide will flow by.
“The PDP therefore challenges the Presidency and the APC to end their arrogant disdain for the people and immediately respond to all allegations raised in the report. These are weighty issues and they can no longer hide under the canopy of politics to dismiss them with a wave of the hand as they did in the past.”