First 30 days of Buhari have brought ‘unprecedented economic decline’, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed concerns over the country’s “unprecedented economic decline” in the first 30 days of President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the party, “the situation is taking its toll on the economy sector… with a terrifying crippling of foreign and domestic investments including activities in the money and capital market sectors”.

It said that after a careful evaluation of the first 30 days of Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in office, it has become obvious that Nigerians need to join hands in prayers to save the government from further inaction and dithering.

“The call for prayers has become necessary given the fact that the administration was finding it difficult to locate its bearing and even take off and face the challenges of governance at the center resulting in 30 days of all motion and no movement, a scenario that does not augur well for the polity,” Olisa Metuh, PDP spokesman, said in a release he issued on Sunday.

“The enormity of the confusion surrounding the government and party in the last one month makes it imperative for Nigerians to pray, as the success or failure of the Buhari administration will not only affect the president and his party but also the entire nation.

“We urge Nigerians to join hands in prayers and offer useful suggestions to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC because with what we have seen in the last 30 days, the present administration is finding it very difficult to get its bearings right while showing no inclination towards implementing its numerous campaign promises for which they were voted into office at the center.

“We are deeply worried that the president, who promised to unveil his cabinet two weeks after his inauguration, has not been able to decide on key appointments such as ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), a Chief of Staff and advisers in key sectors of the economy.

“This is more so as the delay has brought government business in ministries, departments and agencies to a dangerous standstill with coordination of important policies vested on ministers and the SGF now in tatters while the system drifts. This situation also creates loopholes through which overzealous persons around that president can connive with unscrupulous elements in the bureaucracy to syphon public resources in addition to possibly misleading the president to violate due process by spending beyond and outside his statutory limits.

“The situation is taking its toll on the economy sector, which has in the 30 days witnessed unprecedented decline with a terrifying crippling of foreign and domestic investments including activities in the money and capital market sectors. Under President Buhari, the stock market has lost over N238 billion while the All-Share Index fell by 849.87 basis points as at June 19.”

On security, PDP lamented that apart from the directive to relocate the counter-terrorism command centre to Borno state and seeking assistance from foreigners, “no other concrete step has been taken in the fight against insurgency which the president in his April 22, 2015 CNN interview promised to end within his two months in office”.

“Instead, the anti-terrorism effort has completely lost steam in the last 30 days, with insurgents, who had already been pushed to the verge of surrender in the Sambisa forest by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now surging back and spreading into the country,” the statement continued.

“In this regard, we urge the president to confront insurgency and issues of national security with all the vigour they deserve while calling for restrain from actions capable of destroying the fabrics of security intelligence. We also urge for adequate respect for all organs of internal security such as the Directorate of State Security (DSS), which is answerable to the Nigerian state and as such should not be publicly ridiculed by an aide of the president.

“In the same vein, we are disturbed by the ominous signals emanating from the atrocious attempt by the APC to undermine and appropriate the federal legislature resulting in the disruption of lawful proceedings and forced closure of the national assembly, the symbol of our collective national identity as a democratic state. In this direction, we urge the presidency and the APC to imbibe democratic tenets and respect the independence of that arm of government.

“Finally, while we remind the president and the APC that their campaign promises are bonds which must be fulfilled, we urge him to use the next ten days to set up his government by naming his ministers, the SGF and advisers in critical sectors as Nigerians did not vote for a sole administrator but for a democratic government.”