The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has called on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to focus on its core mandate and desist from propaganda.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the presidential hopeful said most of the developmental projects so far inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari were started and mostly fully paid for by the past PDP administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, stressing that the ruling APC can’t take the credit for them.
Atiku who was reacting to the inauguration of the new terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja said the new terminal, like many others were conceived, signed, awarded and paid for by the Jonathan’s administration, hence the APC government should give credit to the previous administration when it is necessary.
“It needs to be emphasised that new terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is among the many projects conceived and started by the immediate past PDP administration of Jonathan. The last administration had obtained a $500 million facility from the Chinese Exim Bank, with additional funding of $100 million from Nigeria to build four international terminals in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja and Kano. We understand that governance is a continuum and that’s why there should not be unnecessary orgasms by sympathisers of the Buhari’s administration in trying to change the narrative that the new terminal and the one earlier commissioned in Port Harcourt were achievements of the Buhari administration,” Atiku said.
He mentioned projects like the completion of Kaduna-Abuja railway line, and the Abuja metro line as among other projects that were at advanced stages before the expiration of Jonathan’s tenure in office.
Atiku challenged President Buhari and the APC to list the projects conceived, started and inaugurated by the current administration in the last three and a half years of its being in office.
“Isn’t it strange that the APC is now resorting to projects conceived and executed by PDP as its achievements in office after spending almost four years in office with nothing to show for it?,” Atiku asked.
The former vice president said anytime a government resorts to blaming the opposition for its failure to deliver on its mandate and responsibilities to the people, it is a clear sign that those running that government have accepted that they have outlived their usefulness.
He said the PDP will continue to expose the lies of the propaganda-propelled APC administration being led by President Buhari.
