.Speech empty, full of false claims – PDP
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, said President Muhammadu Buhari is celebrating his last Democracy Day as Nigeria’s president.
Also, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the president failed to address issues agitating the minds of Nigerians in his Democracy Day broadcast.
Secondus, in his goodwill message to Nigerians yesterday, called on the president to begin now to prepare his handover notes because Nigerians cannot afford another misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) any longer from 2019.
The PDP National Chairman, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Ike Abonyi, described Buhari as a non-democrat who has put the country on the path of retrogression.
“If democracy must survive in our country, we must do away with APC and Nigerians are ready and willing to do just that because they cherish democracy as the best form of government,” Secondus added.
He said Nigerians are anxiously looking forward to the opportunity to dispense with the APC and the president, regretting that Nigerians could find themselves in such horrible situation where, instead of celebrating freedom and good governance, they are burying their loved ones and groaning in the avoidable hardship.
Secondus charged Nigerians to take their destiny in their own hands and be prepared to vote out APC in 2019 to save Nigeria’s democracy.
“Going by their poor record of performance in the last 36 months, and the determination of Nigerians to put the country in the right footing, this is the last Democracy Day this president will mark.
“Their agenda now is to intimidate, harass and scare opponents to create a police state, which must be resisted by Nigerians who passed similar road before and came out victorious.
“The next Democracy Day May, 29, 2019 which Nigerians and indeed all lovers of democracy are anxiously looking forward to, would be a smooth transition from confusion and purposeless governance to real democracy which the PDP is returning as gift to the nation,” the PDP National Chairman stated.
Secondus regretted that the democracy, which PDP nurtured for 16 years, has been bastardized by the APC through intolerance of opposing views.
He called on the international community to show more than passing interest in the events leading to Nigeria’s general elections in 2019, alleging of plans by APC to rig the elections through intimidation and harassment of political opponents.
Ologbondiyan, in the statement, said Buhari’s aloofness to the plight of Nigerians was manifested in all the lines of the speech.
“In fact, no line in the supposed Democracy Day address had any inclination towards justice for victims of abuse of human rights, reported executive high-handedness, illegal arrests and detentions, extra-judicial executions as well as victims of killings and daily bloodletting in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Kaduna, Plateau, Borno, Kogi, Yobe and other parts of the country, by insurgents and marauders,” the statement added.
The opposition party regretted that the President, in the broadcast, failed to address the unrelenting violation of the nation’s constitution; assault on the National Assembly and erosion of personal freedom of citizens.
“The president said nothing on the humongous corruption going on under his administration, where APC leaders and cabal at the presidency have stolen over N10 trillion, mainly from a sector under his direct supervision.
“PDP also notes the fact that the president had no committing words towards the conduct of free, fair and credible 2019 general elections, apparently overwhelmed by the avalanche of his public rejection ahead of the polls.
“Incredibly, Mr. President’s handlers chose to subject him to a fantasy trip, making false performance claims with phantom projects, muddling up economic statistics and ended up worsening his already diminished public perception.
“This is exactly why the PDP had earlier advised President Buhari not to bother to address Nigerians on Democracy Day,” the party said.
