TRACKING____Against the backdrop of President Muhammadu Buhari call for critics to consider what he inherited, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated administration for allegedly reversing the country’s fortune in the five years it has been in office.
The main opposition party also chastised the president for allegedly resorting to “desperate face-saving media stunts in his incongruous plea to Nigerians to accept that the situation in Nigeria is better under his watch, despite the contrary harsh reality in the country.”
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary, the party asserted that President Buhari’s illusory self-assessment further validates its position that “he has since abandoned governance for the luxury and pleasures of Aso Presidential villa, having lost sync with the reality of the devastation his incompetent administration has brought to our nation in the last five years.”
The PDP insisted that “every fair criticism of Buhari’s administration only reveals a litany of failures and a reversal of fortune for our country in the last five years,” adding that, it is “unfortunate that at a time Nigerians expected President Buhari to be remorseful for his failures and rally compatriots for solution, he is rather seeking an endorsement of his cluelessness.”
The party wondered: “How does President Buhari want an unmerited pass mark knowing that under his watch, bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and vandals, who have been pushed to the fringes before he took over in 2015, have now resurged, taking communities hostage, raping our women, beheading our compatriots and foisting a reign of terror to the extent that our nation ranked as the third country with the highest level of terrorism in 2019, after Iran and Afghanistan?
“How does President Buhari sleep in the night, in the comfort of Aso villa, knowing that because of his failures, millions of Nigerians go to bed on empty stomach; that since he took over, more than 30 million businesses have crumbled; that over 60 million Nigerians have lost their means of livelihood resulting in excruciating hardship in our country in the last five years?
“It is unfortunate that President Buhari wants Nigerians to overlook the fact that he wrecked a robust economy handed over to him in 2015 with Fitch B+ rating as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and turned our nation into the world’s poverty capital and a beggar nation, that is now borrowing from all parts of the world?
“Is President Buhari trivializing the pain of a nation which his administration plunged into the worst type of economic recession; where families can no longer afford their daily meals and other necessities of life; and where life has become so unbearable that compatriots now resort to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options?
“Does President Buhari need to be reminded that since he took over, no less than 30 million businesses have crumbled; that over 60 million Nigerians have lost their source of livelihood; that when he took over in 2015 our naira was at N160 to a dollar but has now been weakened to almost N500 per dollar?”
It further observed: “It is unfortunate that President Buhari wants Nigerians to forget that under him, a litre of fuel sold for N87 per litre under the PDP now sells as high as N170 to N200; that the price of staple food such as rice which sold for N10,000 per bag under the PDP now sells for N30,000; that a measure of garri which sold for N100 now sells for N350 and that a litre of palm oil which sold for N200 now sells for N600. “
The PDP counselled President Buhari and his handlers to note that “Nigerians are already faced with the ugly realities of their misrule and cannot be beguiled by false performance claims emanating from them.”
