PDP Govs Ask N’Assembly to Quuckly Conclude Deliberations on Electoral Bill

PDP Govs Ask N’Assembly to Quuckly Conclude Deliberations on Electoral Bill

*Lament nation’s worsening insecurity

*Laud party members on peaceful national convention

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has called on the National Assembly to quickly conclude the deliberation on Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

The governors also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the incessant killing of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups, insisting that the federal government must tackle the issue of insecurity to avoid the collapse of the nation.

The governors made this demand Monday, in a communique at the end of their meeting held at the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt.

The communique was signed by Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State and Chairman of the forum, Gov. Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom State) Gov. Douye Diri (Bayelsa State), Gov. Samuel Ortom (Benue State) Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta State), Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State),Gov. Nyesom Wike, (Rivers State),
Gov. Oluseyi Makinde (Oyo State),
Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa State) and Gov. Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State).

Presenting the communique to journalists, Governor Aminu Tambuwal said it was a meeting crucial to the sustenance of the nation’s democracy.

Governor Tambuwal disclosed that the meeting reviewed the state of the States, the state of the nation and the PDP.

According to the communique, the governors requested “the National Assembly to quickly conclude deliberations on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill either by overriding Mr President’s veto or deleting areas of complaints.

“The meeting advised that the option of sustaining Mr President’s veto would lead to a quicker resolution and would deny Mr President the opportunity to once again truncate a reformed Electoral jurisprudence for Nigeria. An early concluded Electoral Act is vital for credible elections”.

The meeting lamented “the continued state of insecurity in the country, the persistent and ceaseless flow of Nigerians’ blood on a daily basis in many parts of Nigeria, the near collapse of the security situation in Nigeria.”

It said the strategies to confront terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and other criminals is still a major problem of the APC administration.”

The meeting expressed “regrets that Mr President is unwilling, from his recent comments discountenancing the proposals for state policing, to participate in reviewing the structural problems of tackling insecurity in Nigeria”.

It urged “Mr President to reconsider his position and consider decentralisation and restructuring of the security architecture as the most viable solution, together with proper arming, funding and training requirements for Security Agencies”.

The forum continued: “The Nigerian Economy has continued to deteriorate and Nigerians have become numb and accustomed to bad economic news as exemplified by the inconsistent and differential exchange rate regime, high interest rates, unsustainable unemployment figures and borrowing spree some of which have not been applied to important projects, and other bad economic indicators.

“In particular, it is clear that the APC Government is a massive failure when compared with the records of PDP in government”.

Furthermore, the PDP Governors congratulated the entire PDP members for conducting a smooth and credible National Convention that led to the emergence of the highly acclaimed Senator Dr. Iyorchia Ayu-led National Executive Committee.

They also commended the new PDP National Working Committee (NWC) “for hitting the ground running with respect to repositioning the PDP into a credible vehicle for rescuing and rebuilding Nigeria which has been battered by bad economy, insecurity, unemployment and other social ills by the inept APC Administration”.

Recounting the achievements of the past PDP led federal government administration, the meeting recalled “The PDP handed over a $550 billion economy (the largest in Africa), but under APC, Nigeria is the Poverty Capital of the world. In 2015, under PDP, the exchange rate was N198 per Dollar, it is now under APC almost N500 to a Dollar; In 2015, unemployment rate was 7.3% under PDP, it is now 33%, one of the highest in the world under APC.

“In 2015, the Pump price of Petroleum was N87 per litre, it is now N165 per litre and climbing under APC. Debt Servicing now under APC takes over 98% of the Federal budget. The tales of woe is endless”.

The PDP Governors stated that “the management of our Oil and Gas resources, the administration of Federation Account remittances have remained opaque, confusing and non – transparent. In addition, the transition to NNPC Ltd under the Petroleum Industry Act has not been properly streamlined to ensure that the interests of all the tiers of Government are protected, consistent with the 1999 Constitution”.

The meeting urged eligible Nigerians of all walks of life, particularly the Youths, to register en masse with INEC to exercise their franchise in the 2023 general election.

It further noted that the next election was a very consequential election “that should be used to end the dominance of very youth unfriendly APC Government; a government that had the arrogance to deny Nigerian youths of the use of Twitter, a business friendly tool for the young, for over a year. The youths should empower themselves to determine who leads them”.

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