.VP to Nigerians: Don’t be deceived by empty promises
The Presidential Campaign Organisation of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo of insincerity and desperation over their conflicting promises to cede power to the South East and South West geo-political zones in 2023.
It said that promising that power would shift to the two political blocks at the same time had exposed the “dubious intentions” of the Buhari-led government and a clear indication that the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot be trusted any longer.
A spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Prince Kassim Afegbua, who made the assertion yesterday, said it has become obvious that the Buhari administration had recorded abysmal failure in many sectors and was, therefore, desperately hawking the 2023 Presidency in exchange for votes in the 2019 general elections.
Afegbua recalled that just last week, President Buhari, through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, addressed a rally in Owerri, Imo State, where he told APC supporters in the South East region to support Buhari’s re-election as the President would hand over the reins of power to a South-Easterner in 2023. Afegbua said it was curious that during the weekend, the Vice President also told leaders of the South-West region to support the re-election of President Buhari, so as to get the presidency in 2023. “Two principal officers of the same government cannot be fooling Nigerians with vainglorious promises all in the name of re-election.
Such discordant tunes by the first and second citizens of our dear country have exposed lack of synergy and display of double standard and double-speak by chieftains of a government that has continued to display wanton desperation to hold on to power at all cost in the face of monumental failure. “How can the president be promising South- Easterners the Presidency when his Vice President is also promising the South- Westerners same position in 2023, all in the name of 2019 re-election? “This is a clear show of deceit, desperation, crass insincerity and hypocrisy of the highest order. This is a clarion call on the South- Easterners not to trust such carrot being dangled before them as it has become obvious that this government neither fulfills promises nor keeps any covenant.
The same government cannot promise the Igbo and Yoruba at the same time if it were sincere about the shape of politics of 2023 presidency. This government has an uncommon reputation for deceit, lies, insincerity and hypocrisy, especially when it has to do with its 2019 re-election bid,” he said. According to Afegbua, Nigerians were beginning to see through the pretensions and dubiety of purpose which, he said, “has characterised the Buhariled Federal Government; a government in the last three years. “The president cannot, on the one hand be playing God by decreeing which zone he intends to bequeath the reins of power, while his Vice President, on the other hand, is also promising his South-West zone of same position.
This is a typical feature of power hawkers, in their desperation to hoodwink buyers to patronise their morbid products,” he said. But in a reaction, the spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr. Festus Keyamo, said there was nothing fraudulent, dubious or contradictory about the promises made by Buhari and Osinbajo to the South East and South West regions. “Go back and listen carefully to what they said at each occasion. Nobody is promising anybody anything definite. They are simply telling both regions very simply that they stand a chance.
They may, depending on how they work. Some people are just rushing to town to make comments without understanding the context in which these promises were made. All of them, including Fashola, are saying one thing: Vote for Buhari for you to produce the next President in 2023. What it means is that they should work hard. “No party will zone its presidential ticket to a region that does not like it. Did anybody use that word ‘definitely’ that we are giving you the Presidency? They are simply saying, if you work hard, you stand a chance if you deliver the votes. It is conditional, that is why they are begging them. The context in which all of them are saying this is that whichever region worked hard and delivers the votes would produce the next President.
That is the truth of the matter,” Keyamo said. He said that since the Presidency will shift to the South after Buhari’s tenure, it was only wise and logical that the regions in the South should work hard to benefit from the power shift. He charged the PDP Campaign Organisation to concentrate on its own power shift agenda, accusing them of ignoring the uncertainty surrounding Atiku’s promise to run for only one term, which, he said, has been abandoned so early in the day. A source close to the Vice President stated that Osinbajo has never focused on ambition, but only passionately gets assignments given him done and done well.
“He is not talking of 2023 for himself at all. He has a leader and is known as a loyal person by all Nigerians. The PDP can however continue to amuse themselves and live a lie as they have always done. Or what other way can anyone describe the absurd statement. No one takes this party of jokers serious anymore!” the source told New Telegraph.
