‘He only made lame declarations’ — PDP dismisses Buhari’s New Year message

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s new year message as a “boring litany of blame passing”.

In a statement on Monday, the party said the president failed to address key issues affecting the nation.

It said the address, which ended up making Nigerians “more depressed completely failed to respond to issues of corruption under the All Progressives Congress (APC) regime”.

“We already knew the pattern and we advised against it this year. We knew their New Year message would heighten Nigerians’ despondency rather than providing us hope,” read the statement, issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesman.

“Instead of offering solutions or providing the indices for development, the presidency deployed over 2000 words passing the buck, begging the question, making empty claims and attempting to appropriate achievements of the PDP administration.

“What could be more depressing than the fact that the president, who is also the minister of petroleum resources, did not give a clear-cut solution to the acute fuel crisis bedeviling his nation today?

“The president’s speech neither addressed how to raise the fallen value of the naira nor how to rescue the labour market from the 8 million job losses and acute unemployment being suffered by Nigerians under the APC.”

The party said Buhari’s message also had no assurances on the “worsening economic recession ravaging families” in the country nor on the “dilapidated infrastructure and attendant stress on the economy”.

“Rather, what we heard was a boring litany of buck-passing, lame declarations and barefaced attempt to appropriate and claim credit for achievements and landmark projects initiated, articulated and implemented by the PDP administration, including, the railway, electricity and agricultural projects,” it added.

The party challenged the APC to tell Nigerians the landmark project it has executed since coming to power.

“Also the citizens are eager to know what work percentage that have been added to projects that were being executed by the PDP before the APC took power by propaganda and lies in 2015,” the statement read.

“Nigerians have now seen that the APC has nothing to offer but has only succeeded in wrecking the nation and inflicting hardship on the people.

“The option before Nigerians is to kick out the APC come 2019 and return the PDP, which is now repositioned to bring the nation back to the path of national unity and prosperity we all once enjoyed.

“On this note, the PDP stands with the people to once again present a government that is serious, truthful and transparent, with an array of best hands harnessing and channeling our national resources for the good of all, as was the order before the unfortunate incursion of the APC.”