PDP: Tinubu’s Independence Day speech was empty, bereft of ideas

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says President Bola Tinubu’s speech to mark the country’s 63rd independence anniversary was “empty” and “bereft of ideas”.

On Sunday, Tinubu said his administration would provide a provisional wage of N25,000 for six months.

The sum was increased to N35,000 after organised labour rejected the initial proposal.

Read the president’s full speech here.

In a statement on Sunday, Debo Ologunagba, PDP spokesperson, said Tinubu’s government lacks the capacity to run the affairs of the country.

“The PDP insists that Nigerians do not need to pass through agonizing hardship as being excused by President Tinubu if the nation is run by a government that has the required vision and skills to harness and manage our economic potentials, national comparative advantage and expanded value chain that abound in our vast but dormant productive sector,” Ologunagba said.

“The expectation of Nigerians on a day like this was for a presidential speech that will provide concrete solutions to critical challenges of the nation including security as well as the crisis in the electricity and petroleum sectors.”

The spokesperson said every serious government would put a plan in place for every sector of the country’s economy.

“Our Party holds that the manifest non-preparedness and hasty implementation of ill-planned policies by the current APC administration triggered a catastrophic economic failure with unprecedented crippling effect on the productive sector and agonizing hardship on Nigerians,” he said.

“The ill-planned policies led to the closure and mass exodus of many multinational companies from our country, disabled millions of Small and Medium Enterprises and resulted in massive loss of jobs across the country.

“On the much-touted welfare package, the PDP asserts that there is nothing to cheer over such spiteful tokenism where, amidst unbearable costs, President Tinubu announced a miserable N25,000 per month for six months for average low-grade workers, while still being aspirational on his promise of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.”

The spokesperson said Tinubu’s speech was an indicator that the current administration led by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has no plan for citizens.