Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed concern over President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability to productively engage British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying it is directly bungling the nation’s opportunity to draw maximum economic dividends from her visit.
The opposition party said it was indeed unfortunate and completely unpatriotic that instead of thinking of ways to draw economic dividend from the important state visit, Buhari is rather more interested in using them to secure international endorsements for his selfish re-election bid.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, lamented that President Buhari could not even assemble a competent economic team to engage the British leader and has also not considered it expedient to muster a team for strategic engagement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is billed to commence a state visit to the country.
Ologbondiyan said that robust and very fruitful engagement the British leader later had with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta shows how low the standard of national leadership has fallen in our country under the Buhari Presidency.
He stated: “We all saw a British Prime Minister who was favourably disposed to a healthy and productive engagement on critical areas of our economy and how President Buhari and his officials, out of sheer incompetence, failed to seize the opportunity for the benefit of our nation.
“Instead, the Buhari Presidency was more interested in photo-ops and diplomatic niceties, perhaps to score cheap political points, indicative of how our Presidency has diminished in the last three years.”
“President Buhari should immediately end this government lethargy and seek help in setting up a team comprising of very competent and knowledgeable hands to interface with the German Chancellor and her team so that Nigeria will benefit from her visit,” he added.
The PDP therefore urged the Buhari Presidency to stop being a cog in the wheel of progress for the nation.
“Moreover, such is no longer useful for him, as Nigerians and the international community have already reached a consensus that our dear nation needs a more competent and resourceful President, who has respect for rule of law and the overall interest of the people,” he said.
The opposition party therefore cautioned President Buhari not to use the visit of the German leader for another lame attempt at international endorsement, which has continued to elude him, while attracting embarrassing backlashes to the nation.
