The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday expressed concern and
disappointment over the apparent snub by the president-elect, Muhammadu
Buhari, of the programme lined up by the federal government to hand
over power to him by Friday.
The PDP said such behaviour was a measure of lack of democratic discipline.
In a statement, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said
the president-elect owes Nigerians explanations as to why he snubbed
the prayer sessions scheduled for Friday and yesterday for Muslims and
Christians respectively to usher in four years of his in-coming
administration as well as the embarrassing gaffe in protocol and low-key
treatment that characterised his visit to British Prime Minister David
Cameron last Saturday.
The PDP said it was disgraceful that due to poor coordination and crass
ineptitude in the handling of issues, the president-elect was left
almost stranded while waiting for about 30 minutes before he was
received by the British leader and wondered if such is a foretaste of
the muddling to be experienced in the administration of the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
“Nigerians, as citizens of a sovereign nation were thoroughly
embarrassed when they saw their president-elect cheapened and kept
waiting at the door of 10 Downing Street to see the British Prime
Minister due to shoddy arrangements by his handlers.
“Indeed, they are becoming increasingly worried about the frightening
unpreparedness of the APC for governance and the huge embarrassment they
have been attracting to our nation. We know that the APC has been lying
over issues. We also know that the APC and the president-elect have
been flip-flopping and reneging on their campaign promises; but to
embarrass the nation by embarking on such a sensitive visit without
adequate preparations is shameful and completely unacceptable.
“We share the fear of well-meaning Nigerians on how a party which
cannot adequately handle a simple task of organising a diplomatic outing
will effectively administer a country as complex as Nigeria.
“The APC has continued to give signals that it lacks capacity to face
the challenges of governance. Such has been evidenced in the uneasiness
of the president-elect who in apparent loss of confidence in himself has
started reneging on his promises of quick fixes while confessing in a
meeting with APC governors-elect on May 5, that he has ‘started
nervously to explain to people that Rome was not built in a day.’
“Instead of settling down for governance and working out how to fulfill
its promises of making the naira the same in value with the dollar,
paying N5,000,000 monthly to 25 million poor Nigerians, providing
electricity on 24/7 basis, providing free meals for school children and
allowances for discharged but unemployed youth corps members among
others, the APC is busy inventing excuses for failure and blaming
everyone else but themselves. We hope they will not blame the PDP for
their Saturday’s embarrassing outing at 10 Downing Street.
“Furthermore, we find it curious and more than a co-incidence that the
nation is experiencing an acute shortage of fuel and electricity supply
at this point in time, when such has not been the case under the current
PDP-led administration. We ask, are there some forces sabotaging the
system to create an impression that the APC is inheriting poor
infrastructure and complete system breakdown?
“Is this also part of the larger plot to embarrass and defame the
PDP-led administration in an attempt to justify APC’s excuses for
failure,” the PDP probed.
The party insisted that despite the challenges of insecurity and global
economic recession that negatively affected many other nations, its
administration had in the last 16 years worked very hard in
repositioning critical sectors of the polity and laying strong
infrastructure backbone that that any prepared and result oriented
in-coming administration can comfortably leverage on.
It therefore asked, the APC to get, ready to apply its much-mouthed
manifesto or be bold to apologise to Nigerians for presenting false
messianic posture and making false promises to them.
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