By Valentine Amanze
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has carpeted the Presidency for appropriating the achievements of the National Assembly and listing them as those of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said that it was despicable for the Presidency to credit President Muhammadu Buhari the recent amendments to the constitution, particularly the granting of financial autonomy to state assemblies and judiciaries.
The opposition party pointed out that neither the Presidency nor the President made any input in support of the amendments.
It also said that it was equally appalling that the Presidency was still listing the passage of the “Not Too Young to Run” law as an achievement of the President even when he had no input in the initiative.
“It is instructive to note that none of the amendments stem from any executive bill and that the Buhari Presidency has never initiated any programme to enhance the course of governance in our country in the last three years.
“Furthermore, Nigerians already know that the Buhari administration has not implemented a single project or programme in any part of the country in the last three years of governance, but always resorting to lies, blame passing, beguilments, deception and contrivance,” PDP said.
The opposition party faulted the president’s handlers, stressing that they were subjecting him to more public ridicule of commissioning projects executed by other leaders such as his embarrassing commissioning of a regular bus stop constructed by Lagos State and a water borehole in Jigawa while posturing for photo-ops to hoodwink Nigerians.
“In fact, this clear attempt by the Presidency to claim credit for the achievement of the National Assembly has further confirmed PDP’s earlier alert to Nigerians of plans by the Presidency to dish out fictitious achievements and false performance indices to deceive Nigerians ahead of 2019 general election,” PDP said.
Besides, it commended the National Assembly and state houses of assembly for their resilience in enhancing the nation’s democratic practice as consolidated by successive PDP administrations, despite the unrelenting assault on the institution of the legislature by the Buhari administration.
It however advised the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to end their proclivity for deception as such gimmicks cannot save them in 2019.