PDP, APC In War Of Words Over Buhari’s ‘Empty Agenda To Foreign Envoys’

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress disagreed on Wednesday over President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech to the diplomatic committee when he received newly-posted ambassadors to the country on Tuesday.

While the PDP accused the President of making “another round of empty promises and blank agenda to members of the international community”, the APC dismissed the PDP’s views, reminding the party of its past, which the ruling party said was riddled with “voodoo economics” and “corruption.”

The PDP criticised Buhari’s promise to bequeath a better Nigeria by improving on the livelihoods of Nigerians up to 2023.

The opposition party said the President was simply following a pattern of making “unfulfilled promises” since 2015

It noted that the President now “seeks a face-saving measure of presenting yet a fresh list of vacuous agenda to foreign envoys who are already aware of the failures of his government.”

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, claimed that Buhari had nothing offer the nation other than unfilled promises.

He went ahead to mention some promise Buhari made since 2015 that remained unfilled.

Ologbondiyan stated, “The world need not be reminded that Mr President and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), packaged a litany of false promises with which they swayed Nigerians in 2015, only to renege on assumption of office.

“President Buhari and the APC had promised to pay N5,000 monthly allowance to indigent Nigerians, provide massive employment, free houses, monthly allowances to discharged youth corps members, reduction in price of fuel, revamping of our refineries, bringing the US dollar to the same value as the naira and other bogus promises which have today, become streams of a mirage.

“On assumption of office, President Buhari reduced the litany of promises to three cardinal undertakings of ending insurgency and insecurity, fighting corruption by having and improving on the economy.”

He also added: “It is no longer news that President Buhari has failed in all these three undertakings to Nigerians.”

The PDP spokesman believes that insecurity, in the five years under the President, has worsened in the country with bandits, insurgents and kidnappers running over towns and communities in “various states, including Buhari’s home state of Kastina, while Mr President, who promised to lead from the front lines, is receding in the safety and comfort of the Aso Presidential Villa.”

On the economy, the PDP accused Buhari of turning the once “prosperous” country into the poverty capital of the world with “so much hardship hunger and starvation, escalated unemployment, high cost of food, reduced life expectancy, high morbidity rate and collapsed infrastructure to the extent that Nigerians now resort to suicide and slavery abroad as options.”

He poke further, “Contrary to its promise, the Buhari administration has increased the price of fuel from N87 in 2015 to the current N148 per liter; the naira now exchanges as high as N500 to a dollar against N160 margin in 2015; our refineries have still not received attention.

“Under President Buhari, no sector of our national life has witnessed any improvement. Imposition of suppressive tariffs and taxes, including an increased Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5% to 7.5%; huge foreign borrowings that are siphoned by APC leaders and other anti-people policies have become the order of the day.

“Furthermore, under President Buhari, corruption has worsened as even detailed in the reports by various reputable international organisations such as the Transparency International (TI), with government providing cover for corrupt officials and their agents.

“The stench of corruption oozing out from the various investigations in the National Assembly and the indicting of the head of the nation’s anti-corruption agency under Buhari expose the decadence in the Buhari administration.”

The major opposition party concluded: “It is therefore scandalous that Buhari could attempt to grandstand before foreign envoys and pull out another merry-go-round box of fake promises when Nigerians already know that it has no intentions of fulfilling such, nearly two years into Mr President’s second and final term of four years.”

But, in reaction to the PDP attacks, the APC blasted the opposition party, reminding it of its past where “Voodoo economics, intutionalised corruption among other frauds, were the order of the day.”

Spokesman of the party, Yekini Nabena, said the President listed nine people-focused priority areas that his administration would focus on in its remaining time in office.

Nebana noted that it would be a waste of time taking issues with the PDP, which “failed as a government and has become shockingly rudderless as a supposed opposition party.”

He added, “One thing is clear, we are reminded why the PDP should never be allowed to direct the country’s affairs again.”

He argued that under the Buhari-led APC government, Nigeria had become Africa’s largest economy, as the country grew what it ate and as well as achieved a sustainable petroleum pricing template.

He went further: “Is institutionalised corruption and impunity still the norm? No. Is money spent on ongoing infrastructure project being accounted for? Yes. With our steady climb in the global ease of doing business index, is Nigeria a profitable investment destination? Yes.”