• Buhari failed to reconnect with Nigerians -PDP
From Romanus Ugwu, Fred Itua and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lacks the rectitude to speak on the controversial issue of restructuring after spending 16 years in government without implementing it.
The opposition PDP, in a statement credited to the spokesperson, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, had claimed that PDP has always supported restructuring and that the recent clamour by APC was a ploy to deceive Nigerians.
But reacting to the PDP’s claim in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the APC told the opposition party to bury its head in shame for organising two national conferences in 2005 and 2014 without implementing any of them.
The ruling party said: “APC notes the statement issued by the spokesperson of PDP, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, claiming that PDP had always supported restructuring. This should ordinarily be a welcome development as it provides opportunity for bi-partisan cooperation on this very important national issue.
“However, of concern is PDP’s rather shallow interpretation of restructuring as desired by Nigerians. In his release, Mr. Adeyeye quoted several aspects of his party’s constitution which he claimed serve as evidence that PDP believes in restructuring.
“A cursory review of the said parts of the constitution would, however, suggest either the PDP is deliberately out to mislead or it just does not have an appropriate understanding of the restructuring that Nigerians clamour for.
For instance, preamble 2(b) of the PDP constitution quoted by Adeyeye states: “To work together under the umbrella of the party for the speedy restoration of democracy, the achievement of national reconciliation, economic and social reconstruction and respect for human rights and the rule of law.
“If statements such as the above are what PDP intends to pass off as restructuring, it further confirms the party is still not in tune with the aspirations and dreams of Nigerians. It is, indeed, amusing that after being in power for 16 years, PDP is just waking up to realise that its constitution prescribed restructuring.
APC said PDP, while in power, had nine years between the first conference and the second one it conducted; and one full year between the time the report of the 2014 conference was submitted and the time it lost power in 2015.
“Perhaps, if PDP shows aspects of the two reports it had implemented, then, Nigerians might begin to take them seriously on the issue of restructuring. If the PDP now believes in restructuring, we welcome them as latter-day converts. It must interest the PDP that we have dusted up the reports of their national conferences from the shelves they had left them and those reports are now forming part of the work we are doing with our committee, which they have tried hard to denigrate.
“For avoidance of doubt, APC believes in restructuring of the country. It is at the very heart of our party’s manifesto as explicitly stated in Section 3 (1). We pledge to bring the government closer to the people through fiscal and political decentralisation, including local policing.”
The ruling party also accused the opposition party, which lost power at the centre in 2015, of destroying the economy and social fabrics of the country.
Reacting to President Buhari’s recorded broadcast, following his return from a medical vacation in the United Kingdom (UK), Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi, said: “This government is on its way to bring Nigeria back to the path of sanity. It was cascading and tumbling down without control until APC came in at the nick of time.
“For instance, by June 30, our reserve was $30.288 billion and by August 16, it went up to $31.551 billion. In other words, the economy has started picking up in quantum.”
Sabi hailed President Buhari’s speech and described it as apt, precise and highly cogent. He said the speech addressed inherent issues bordering on fundamentals, fabric and foundations of the nation pushed to front burner of discourse while the president was away.
Meanwhile, PDP said President Buhari missed a golden opportunity to reconnect with Nigerians through his speech delivered yesterday morning.
In a statement issued yesterday night by Chinwe Nnorom, Head of Publicity Division, on behalf of the National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP said Buhari’s speech did not contain anything new.
The statement read in part: “The PDP believes that rather than rehearsing the worn out clichés about Nigeria’s unity not being negotiable, Nigerians would have loved to hear their president come out definitively to tell them what realistic measures his government intended to take to uproot the causes of the perennial agitations and counter agitations that are becoming a recurring decimal in our national discourse.
“The party believes that instead of always mouthing the indivisibility of this country, the government should be seen walking the talk by instilling confidence in all the people across board that it belongs to all.
“The casual mention of ‘elements of Boko Haram’…kidnappings, farmers versus herdsmen clashes’ etc, were also somewhat on the perfunctory side and do not imbue confidence.”