Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wednesday alleged that the Presidency’s continuous reference to a presidential successor less than a year into President Muhammadu Buhari’s second tenure was a direct acceptance of failure and lack of capacity of the Buhari administration to manage the affairs of a nation as complex as Nigeria.
The party noted that Buhari’s apprehensions that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), would fizzle out before 2023 was also a weighty forewarning to Nigerians not to put any hope whatsoever in the APC.
PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, also charged the Buhari presidency to immediately apologise to the nation over the comment to “hand Nigeria over,” explaining that such statement was a direct affront to Nigerians and a huge insult on their sensibility and sense of sovereignty to freely choose their leader.
The party urged Nigerians to note that such continued allusion to a successor by the Buhari presidency showed that the President and the APC have no agenda for the nation for the next three years.
PDP alleged the state of hopelessness of the current administration and the sorry situation confronting Nigerians under Buhari and the APC, noting that from all indications and indices the Buhari administration has failed the nation.
The party lamented that such state of hopelessness underlined the pathetic drift in Buhari’s New Year speech as well as his failure to articulate a clear-cut agenda in critical sectors.
The statement added that this also exposed the reason behind APC’s resort to blackmail, fabrication and attack on well-meaning Nigerians instead of enunciating a direction for its incompetent administration.
“Our party, standing with millions of Nigerians, counsels the Buhari presidency to bury its confessed interests in the 2023 presidency and desist from making unsolicited allusions and references to a successor, as failed leaders can only bequeath failure on a people,” the statement alleged.
PDP charged the Buhari presidency to immediately withdraw the offensive and provocative remark to “hand Nigeria over” in its response to Pastor Tunde Bakare’s comment on the 2023 Presidency.
“Our party cautions the Buhari presidency to note that Nigeria is a sovereign nation governed by rules and that nobody, no matter how highly placed, has the power to hand her over to anybody,” PDP said, insisting that if Buhari has interest in his successor, the President was directly kicking against the will of the people to freely elect a president as guaranteed by the constitution.
It said that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) does not confer the right to install the President of Nigeria on any individual, but on the people of Nigeria through a free, fair and credible election conducted without interference from anybody.
PDP counselled the President to end his interest in the 2023 presidency and use the remaining years of his tenure to get competent hands to assist him to manage the affairs of the nation, while he concentrates on his retirement plans as Nigerians expect no solutions from him and his party.
