Atiku, PDP slam Buhari: You failed, not the system

As the 2019 polls draw nearer, the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, are consistently engaged  in hot exchange of words, with the latest bordering on the ‘slow governance’ of the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the alleged cabal within the Aso Villa.

President Buhari, had on Tuesday replied his critics who dubbed him Baba Go Slow that it was not him that was slow in the corruption fight, but the system which he blamed on the democratic norms and rule of law, as against the military style.

Receiving residents of the Federal Capital Territory who paid him a Christmas homage on Tuesday, Buhari had said: “I told you what I did when I was in uniform, but now when I have to go by this system (democracy,) where people have to be arrested and then prosecuted, taken to court and then with evidence, we will collect back what they had taken illegally and for doing that, people are calling me ‘Baba go slow’.

“I am going slowly but whatever the case, I will not stop pointing fingers at those who have abused trust by taking money that does not belong to them. I will keep on trying to do my best for this country and get back what belongs to the country.

“We are working on the roads; revive the railway and electricity with the little resources at our disposal. Fighting corruption, yes, we are slow because the system is slow. It’s not Baba that is slow but it is the system. So, I am going by this system and I hope we will make it.”

Atiku, PDP disagree

Faulting the president’s position, however, the PDP and its presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubkar said, the comment was an admission of failure by the APC-led federal government.

A statement from Abubakar’s media office, berated Buhari for blaming the system, rather than blaming himself and his team for the alleged failure.

The statement, issued from his media office, said “my attention has been drawn to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of a Christmas homage paid on him by members of the Federal Capital Territory community, in which he blamed his inability to fight corruption on the Nigerian system.

“According to the president, his administration is slow in fighting corruption because the system is slow.”

The Wazirin Adamawa commended “President Buhari for admitting that he has failed in fighting corruption. The president has just corroborated Transparency International, whose latest Corruption Perception Index, shows that Nigeria is more corrupt today than it was under the previous administration, having moved 12 places backwards in the CPI, from 136 in 2014 to 148 this year.”

“But my point of departure from the president is in blaming his failure on the system. I disagree. The system has challenges, yes, but where there is political will, the system can make progress.

“I was Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, and we used that same system to speedily convict no less a personality than an Inspector General of Police, and several others, including cabinet ministers and other high officials.

“Mr. President, the problem with your anti-corruption war is not the system. You are the problem! The system allows you to arrest, try and convict your former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who was fingered in a major corruption case, but you chose to let him go scot-free and you demonstrated your tolerance for his corruption by giving him a prominent role in your re-election campaign, and recently welcoming him to the Presidential Villa with open arms.

“The system allowed you to arrest try and convict Abdulrasheed Maina, the biggest ever alleged thief in our civil service history, who is suspected of looting the pensions of millions of aged Nigerians. Yet, you chose not to go that route, preferring instead to recall him, reinstate and double-promote him while giving him armed guards to move about.

“The system allows you to probe the $25 billion NNPC contracts awarded without due process, but you chose to bury the matter under the carpet, hoping the Nigerian people will forget about that grand scale alleged looting exposed by a leaked memo from a member of your cabinet.

“Finally, nothing in the system stops you from telling Nigerians who owns the billions found in an Ikoyi apartment. Based on the above statement of facts, I will not allow you to make Nigeria the scapegoat for your failure. Your failure is personal, and not national.

“If you could go abroad to insult Nigerian youths as lazy, why did you go to Paris to praise a governor who was caught red-handed receiving bribes on camera?

“The system did not stop the EFCC from charging the opposition Governor of Akwa-Ibom, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, as a co-accused in the case involving the NBA Chairman, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN). Contrast this with the treatment meted out to Governor Umar Ganduje of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

“Besides, your excuse is deceptive, because you have staunchly resisted restructuring. If you really believed that the system is the problem, you would have embraced restructuring.

“Unfortunate as your admitted failure in the war on corruption is, it is your economic policy that is the greater failure. Your lack of ideas and your politicisation of the corruption war has made your administration fight legitimate businesses and the opposition,” the PDP standard bearer further added.

PDP too…

In a similar position, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO), noted that President Buhari’s decision to anchor his 2019 campaign on seeking solution for the same issues of economy, anti-corruption and insecurity, as promised in 2015, is a clear admission that he lacks the capacity to deliver.

In a statement y its Director, Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan yesterday, the PPCO insisted that, “President Buhari therefore, has no business seeking a re-election in 2019, as Nigerians are no longer ready to follow any leader who has no solutions to the myriads of problems facing our nation.”

According to Ologbondiyan, “President Buhari has wrecked our once robust economy handed over to him in 2015 by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The economy was ranked one of the largest investments in the hub of Africa, and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with Fitch B.B rating.”

PDP also lamented that, “instead of any improvement, President Buhari only succeeded in plunging our economy into a harrowing recession, wrecked our naira from N160 to the dollar, under the PDP to N500, and then to the current N360; foisted obnoxious economic policies that scared away investors from our land, collapsed businesses, destroyed over 30 million jobs, de-marketed our nation before the globe and plunged our citizens into the worst form of hunger and poverty.”

“Whereas the PDP administration paid off our foreign debts and grew a virile economy, President Buhari’s achievements are the accumulation of trillion of naira in debts, depletion of our foreign financial instruments and making our once thriving nation the poverty capital of the world.

“Under President Buhari’s promised Eldorado, purchasing powers of Nigerians have fallen abysmally low; the cost of fuel increased from the N87 under the PDP to N145, cost of food items and other essential commodities skyrocketed beyond reach, leaving our citizens forlorn.

“President Buhari cannot point to any development project his administration initiated and completed in the last three and half years, despite the huge resources at its disposal, yet he is wishing to seek re-election on fresh promises,” the party claimed.

“Under President Buhari’s incompetent watch, insurgents and marauders, which had been pushed to the fringes of the North-east under the PDP, have now resurged and spread to North-west and North-central geo-political zones, while criminal elements, armed robbers and kidnappers are having a field day pillaging our citizens in other parts of our nation.

“Today, our gallant soldiers are daily killed by insurgents because of government neglect. Bloodletting has become the order of the day to the extent our nation has turned into a large funeral parlour with escalated human rights abuses, extra-judicial and arbitrary killings and restriction of personal freedom of citizens by state apparatus of power as detailed in the report by the United States Department of State.

“In the same vein, the world can recall that Transparency International (TI) 2017 corruption perception index amply showed that corruption in Nigeria has worsened under President Buhari with our nation dropping 12 places in the corruption rung,” it added.

To this end, the PDP spokesman said, “President Buhari, in hinging his 2019 campaign on the same plank on which he has failed, is only stating the obvious; that he has admitted failure and that he has no solutions to our challenges.

“This is the main reason for the decision by Nigerians to rally behind our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who understands the nuances of our national life and has articulated operable templates to revamp our economy, address our security issues and effectively stop corruption and sharp practices in our system.”

Your mudslinging blossoms our brooms

But dismissing the above claims, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said if the opposition PDP wants to make family the issue in the coming elections, the APC  would gladly accept the challenge.
“Let this be the subject for 2019 election,” he told State House correspondents yesterday during an interaction.
Reacting to various comments by several organs of the opposition party on remarks made by the president on views publicly expressed by his wife, Mrs. Aisha  Buhari in an interview, the presidential spokesman said, questions raised on the president by the PDP in regard to his wife, only amounted to an own goal.
He said: “The PDP leadership cannot afford to make family an issue in this campaign. Need I say more? The only thing I want to add is that  PDP is engaging in mud-slinging because it finds it easier than speaking on their despicable 16-year record in the course of which they abused the trust of Nigerians.
“They made a mess of everything, including the economy, security and infrastructure. It has come to the destiny of President Muhammadu Buhari to correct their mistakes. The PDP doesn’t see anything beyond grabbing power, power at all costs. As an opposition party, they have failed. They have remained disconnected with the masses of our people. It is an irony that a party that boasted as being the largest in Africa is now begging small parties for alliances. Even if they get all those paper parties behind them, they will still fail. A presidential contest is more than the issuance of daily press releases containing falsehoods.
“They have launched a campaign for the Presidency, a campaign that has failed to get any traction. PDP members are themselves admitting that the campaign hadn’t made a good start, that attendance at rallies had unarguably been thin. The whole thing is not working; that President Buhari is unstoppable.
“Rather than a so-called cabal, an imaginary creation attached to all past governments of the country, President Buhari is remote-controlled by the 200 million-plus Nigerian people whose interest is uppermost in everything he says and does.
“The PDP doesn’t have the strength and support to fight President Buhari. They don’t have the records in security, economy and the war against corruption to mount any meaningful challenge. They have no records of accomplishments in infrastructure.

“In the 16 years they held sway, they have nothing to show for the colossal oil revenues earned, including USD 16 billion doled upfront from the Central Bank for power, without a single megawatt to show for all that money. That is why they are dragging the president’s wife into their politics.”

Presidency cautions on PDP ‘lies’

Also in another statement, Shehu urged Nigerians to be watchful of what comes out from the opposition PDP in order “not to be misled into voting for a party that sees nothing wrong with corruption, and would rather have everyone drenched in its colours, as they irretrievably are.”
The statement reads: “The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has continued spreading lies about the Buhari administration in the mistaken assumption that its toga of corruption will dissipate if it succeeded in black painting every other person as corrupt. The strategy is to make corruption appear as normative and that everyone is equally involved. They think by so doing, Nigerians will forgive them for their sins. This is a huge mistake.
“The PDP has become an ill-wind on the country today, and the elections next year presents the citizens an excellent opportunity to save the country from it.
“We can’t imagine a sane organisation shamelessly telling Nigerians that President Buhari is looting, as they themselves did of the recovered loot, the USD 322m lately recovered from the Abacha family. This is an irresponsible lie.
“The USD 322m  recovered is being used to make the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT of a monthly amount of N5,000 to more than 300,000 poor homes across the nation under the Social Investment Programme introduced by the Buhari administration. This is in line with the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the governments of Nigeria and Switzerland as a condition for releasing the funds.
“As part of the MoU, the World Bank is monitoring the application of the funds.
It is also important that the World Bank has equally given an additional facility to support the on-going cash transfers.”

 

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