· Says Tinubu will not abdicate his responsibilities
· Opposition govs idle, viciously complicit, APC declares
Chuks Okocha, Olawale Ajimotokan and Juliet Akoje in Abuja
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has called on governors elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to concentrate on the duties they were elected for.
Idris also tried to clear some of the doubts of the opposition, when he said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not abdicate his responsibility to the Nigerian people.
All Progressives Congress (APC) also slammed the PDP governors, describing them as “idle but viciously complicit spectators”.
PDP governors had in a statement at the weekend called for the resignation at President Bola Tinubu, if he could not solve the problems of insecurity and deteriorating economy affecting the country.
But in a reaction by his Special Assistant on Media, Rabiu Ibrahim, the minister said the call by the PDP governors was nothing but an attempt at distraction by people, who should instead be busy supporting the president’s efforts at bringing economic relief to the Nigerian people.
The statement said, “It is our considered view that the PDP and its governors should not be seeking, through the back door of intimidation, what they have consistently failed to achieve by democratic means, since 2015.
“Those who could not bring transformational change when they had a lengthy chance to, should not seek to interrupt or distract those who are busy at work on the presidential vision that Nigerians elected them to implement.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu has also, since inception, generously extended financial support to all the state governments, regardless of partisan affiliation.
“In addition, the removal of the petrol subsidy – which, incidentally, was one of the main planks of the PDP presidential campaign – has swelled the revenues of all states, including the PDP states. To whom more has been given, more is therefore expected.”
The statement explained that the president and his administration recognised the unfinished business of revamping the national economy, kick-started by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, through programmes focused on large-scale infrastructure, social welfare, prioritising the equipping and welfare of the military and security agencies, and reclaiming Nigeria’s strategic place in the comity of nations.
The minister said Boko Haram and its affiliates that were on the ascendancy in 2014/2015, had since been decimated, and similar bold gains were being made now with bandits and other criminals.
He stated, “Nigerians have not forgotten that it was the APC administration that cleared several liabilities left behind by the PDP government, such as subsidy claims by oil marketers, Paris Club Refunds, unpaid pensions, gratuities, and salary arrears owed various categories of pensioners from liquidated and existing state-owned enterprises.
“Major oil sector reforms that the PDP touted for years but could not deliver – passage of the PIB, new refineries, as well as the revamp of existing ones, and so on – are the very real and continuing legacies of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“All of these have been accomplished without access to the oil windfall that the PDP government enjoyed for much of the time that it was in power, and also against the backdrop of the most devastating global shock since the Second World War: the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The minister maintained that Tinubu was not, and would never be, overwhelmed by the current challenges in the country.
The statement said of the president, “He will not abdicate his responsibilities. He will courageously continue to wrestle with the challenges and surmount them, laying a durable foundation for the new Nigeria that is emerging.
“He has also never shied away from acknowledging the pain of ongoing reforms, and has seized every opportunity to assure Nigerians that inside the pain of the reforms lie the seeds of lasting prosperity and national development.
“To the PDP governors, let us reiterate: this is not the time for distraction. It is time instead for the rolling up of sleeves, to support and complement the hard work of the president and his administration.”
In another statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, APC said the PDP governors were basking in wilful blindness to their constitutional responsibilities.
Morka stated that “noxious executive flippancy has now become a badge of identity for these idle but viciously complicit spectators in the affairs of their states and citizens”.
The statement said, “A federal system like ours operates on the idea of shared, constitutionally delineated responsibilities among the three tiers of government – federal, state and local governments. Effective governance requires collaboration and coordination among all three levels to deliver the promise of democracy to all citizens.
“By virtue of their membership of the National Economic Council and National Council of State, governors bear a solemn duty, where possible, to proffer constructive ideas or solutions to the challenges of governance of our nation.
“Like all citizens, governors are entitled to free speech. However, that right must be exercised against a standard of respectability and reasonableness. Reckless utterances capable of inflaming passions and social upheaval must be avoided.
“Likening Nigeria to Venezuela, as the PDP governors did in a recent communique, even under the prevailing challenging economic and security contexts of Nigeria, is unhelpful and smacks of unrighteous indignation.
“Rather than live up to their responsibilities as chief executive officers of Nigeria’s federating units, the PDP governors have turned themselves into a band of doomsday vocalists, raising their voices to deafening decibels intended to drown the groans of their citizens battered by their critical inertia, ineptitude and dismal performance as governors of their states.
“At the federal, buck ‘ultimately stops’ at the president’s table. So, the state buck ‘ultimately stops’ at the governors’ table. The PDP governors’ call to the president to throw in the towel is nothing short of self-indictment.
“It is cringeworthily that the same governors that have never justified the massive federal allocations to their states, that have perennially stifled and dispossessed local government administrations of federally allocated funds, are talking about ‘buck’.
“How can a governor of a state in utter shambles, like Delta, participate, barefaced, in a talk about ‘buck’? Has the PDP governor of Delta State even attempted to justify the over 483.57 billion Naira federal allocation to the state in 2023?
“Which part or sector of Delta State bears witness to the use of that huge allocation? Delta State retirees have remained desperately pulverised by PDP’s uninterrupted reckless rule since the advent of this Republic in 1999.
“Since the buck also stops at the PDP governors’ table at the state level, they should practise what they preach by resigning from their offices rather than blaming the federal administration for their utter failure to mobilise massive resources at their disposal to improving the living conditions of their people.”
