Nigeria Now Shares Sovereignty With Terrorists Due To Buhari’s Failure – Ayu

The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Iyorchia Ayu, has accused the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of abdicating responsibility of protecting the country and alleged that the president is now sharing the country’s sovereignty with terrorists.

Ayu gave the scathing remarks on Friday during the inauguration of the new National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP in Abuja.

In his brutal assessment of the security situation of the country, Ayu said Nigeria has been bent over by kidnappers who now see Kidnapping for ransom as big business.

He lamented that Nigeria today shares sovereignty with “terrorists who kidnap and rape our women, including our mothers and under-aged children.”

He added that “The terrorists even kill them when ransom is delayed. These are not political alarms, but statements of facts.”

Ayu, basking in the success of the party’s recently conducted National Convention, is expected to instil discipline, internal party democracy and justice in the administration of the party.

While acknowledging the arduous task ahead, he spent ample time x-raying Buhari’s alleged failure, which manifests in terrorism, kidnapping, unemployment, recessions and general maladministration.

He however said the task is to return the Party to the people. “But to do that,” he said, “the Party needs to be reinvigorated, reinvented and repositioned.

“We are not unmindful of our missed steps and actions in the past, but we have learnt our lessons, both in government and in opposition. Today, we stand tall, and with a firm resolve to rebuild our great party and rescue our nation.”

He pointed out that the PDP is the only organic political party in Nigeria that has remained a credible, tested, tasted and trusted mass movement since the return of democracy in 1999, tagging other political parties to have either fizzled away or merged with others.

He said some have mutated into a contraption like the ruling APC, without any clear ideology or a coherent programme of action.

According to him, this contraption (APC) “seduced Nigerians with propaganda in 2015. Today, Nigerians have seen the limit of propaganda and demagoguery. The only thing the APC is doing successfully is irresponsible borrowing”.

On the contrary, he said the PDP has a history of performance and legacy achievements.

“In our 16 years in power, we not only gave Nigerians good governance, we also strengthened democratic institutions so as to add value to the people. In an unprecedented move, we stabilized our democracy by sanitizing the armed forces of politically exposed officers.

“We gave Nigeria her first-ever successful transition from one civilian administration to another in 2007. To the disbelief of all watchers of African politics, we willingly conceded defeat in 2015, and handed over power to an opposition party in 2015.”

He said it was the PDP-Federal Government that created value-adding public institutions like the EFCC, ICPC, NAFDAC, the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) among many others.

“The PDP administration also strengthened the governance process by enacting laws to effectively drive public administration in Nigeria, namely: the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Mid-Term Expenditure Fame-Work, the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personal and Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS) just to mention a few.”

He further pointed out that while the PDP negotiated and obtained forgiveness of over $30 billion of debt, making Nigeria almost a debt-free country, the APC government has sunk Nigeria into more debts.

He said the APC has given the country two recessions and turned Nigeria into the Poverty Capital of the world, adding that “today 40 million Nigerians have no jobs.”

According to him, “In the last six years, the APC-led government has mismanaged our diversity; divided the country along regional and religious lines. It has exacerbated religious tensions in the country.

“And through its marriage to nepotism, the incompetent APC- Federal Government is fueling secessionist agitations in the East and West of Nigeria.

He said, “Nigeria is drifting dangerously towards a failed state. Terrorists are now sharing sovereignty with Nigeria. Nigeria is simply ungoverned. Nigeria is collapsing under the leadership of a retired general!

“The APC used both the mainstream media and the social media to access power. Today, it coordinates a systematic assault on the media, civic freedoms and freedom of speech.

“Let me give you the grim legacy of the APC: Two economic recessions in six years. A sluggish GDP growth rate of below two percent,” he added.

He noted that about 40 million Nigerians have been pushed into extreme poverty in six years while inflation is at an all-time high at 18%.

He further pointed out that the current administration has created a weak and devalued Naira, devalued by over 300% since 2015, and has made Nigerian currency the worst in Africa.

For the PDP he said, “Under the new NWC, PDP will strengthen its internal democratic processes. We shall endeavour to reach out to all party members, young and old, male and female.

“This National Working Committee will create alternate platforms within the Party to actively engage the young people and our women, not only for mobilizing and winning elections, but for advocacy, policy formulation and the design of a new development agenda for the Party. “

He stated that, “We shall return the party to vigorous discussions; pay serious attention to new thinking and the implementation of policies and programmes that will secure and improve the quality of life of all Nigerians.

“The Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI) will be revived and strengthened to drive this process. Before the next election cycle, we shall present a PDP manifesto that will bring back Hope to our people.”