By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to use the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which commences today, to open up on the economic difficulties facing the country and to seek assistance of world leaders.
The party said President Buhari should resist the temptation of seeking to impress world leaders with false performance indices, but should present the real situation, particularly the pitiable state of the economy, escalated insecurity, human rights abuses, daily bloodletting, persecution of opposition and erosion of democratic values in the last three years.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, the party also said the president should not forget to inform CHOGM that back home, there is a national indignation and general vote of no confidence against his administration for its abysmal performance and failure to fulfill the littlest in the long list of bogus promises they made during the 2015 presidential campaign.
“President Buhari should inform other world leaders that due to the harsh economic policies and gross incompetence of his administration, our once robust economy, internationally rated as one of the fasted growing in the world and one of the best investment destinations, collapsed in his hands and went into a recession; that infrastructures are collapsing and that all sectors of public and private lives are now in shambles.
“He should not forget to tell the world that not only has he failed in his false promise to increase the value of naira from N1 to $1, his government has wrecked our currency from N160-N170 it met it in 2015 to a devastating N350-N400, with attendant horrible pressure on the economy.
“Mr. President should not forget to inform CHOGM that under his administration, more than 16 million Nigerians became unemployed, 18
million more became underemployed while another 27.44 million refused to work in 2016 for various reasons not unrelated to frustration in the polity.
“Our dear president, who is already seeking re-election, should not forget to tell the world that due to his harsh policies, the middle class has been wiped off, families are in distress; hunger, poverty and strange diseases are now ravaging our people to the extent that Nigerians, once considered the happiest people on earth, are now resorting to slavery and suicide as options,†he said.
PDP said the president Buhari should not shy away from informing the world that his administration has failed in guaranteeing the safety of lives and property.
“That under his watch, our dear countryhas become one of the most insecure countries to live in; bloodletting, violent attacks and sectoral crisis have become the order of the day; insurgents and marauders are having field day pillaging innocent citizens while our land has practically transformed into a large funeral palour.
“Furthermore, President Buhari must tell the world that he has woefully failed in his much touted fight against corruption; that his administration is merely engaged in personal vendetta, direct persecution and media trial of opposition members, while known corrupt persons in the All Progressives Congress (APC) continue to enjoy official cover of his presidency.
“He should not forget to confess that his administration has done nothing about the presidency cabal involved in the alleged stealing of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) in NNPC and billions of naira National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) intervention funds,†PDP The party urged the president not to allow his handlers to mislead him to colour his presentation at CHOGM as such would detract from his integrity as a leader.
