The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has slammed President Bola Tinubu over his 63rd Independence Day address to Nigerians, claiming it was empty and bereft of ideas.
The PDP also said the speech by the President was merely aspirational in the wrong direction, especially in the face of the harrowing experiences being encountered by Nigerians under the All Progressives Congress, APC, administration.
According to the party, “Tinubu’s admission in his speech that his administration is responsible for the current excruciating hardship in the country validates PDP’s position that the Tinubu-led government lacks the competence, capacity, required skills and humaneness to effectively run the affairs of the nation”.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba.
The PDP insisted that Nigerians do not need to pass through agonizing hardship as it claimed was being excused by the President if the nation is run by a government that has the required vision and skills to harness and manage the nation’s economic potentials and national comparative advantage.
“The expectation of Nigerians on a day like this was for a Presidential speech that will provide concrete solutions to critical challenges of the nation, including security, as well as the crisis in the electricity and petroleum sectors.
“Indeed, any serious government with requisite capacity and vision will set a Marshall Plan on every critical sector which has the capacity to galvanize and stimulate the economy through job creation.
“The party holds that the manifest non-preparedness and hasty implementation of ill-planned policies by the current APC administration triggered a catastrophic economic failure with unprecedented crippling effect on the productive sector and agonizing hardship on Nigerians,” the PDP said.
The party said it was troubling that Tinubu’s speech had no clear-cut measures to revamp the critical sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, food production, transportation, healthcare, education and other pivotal sectors of life in the country.
“The President’s speech articulated no solutions to the fall of the Naira from N187 to the US Dollar under the PDP to over N1000 under his watch; no answers to the alarming over 40% unemployment rate and the fact that Nigerians are now daily fleeing the country in droves.
“It is heartrending that the President’s speech had no words on the mindless killings, maiming, abductions and mass burial of citizens in various parts of the country under his watch. He had no reassuring words on the abduction of students in Zamfara State as well as other victims of such dastardly acts across the country.
“On the much-touted welfare package, the PDP asserts that there is nothing to cheer over such spiteful tokenism where, amidst unbearable costs, President Tinubu announced a miserable N25,000 per month for six months for average low-grade workers, while still being aspirational on his promise of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.
“Our Party invites Nigerians to note that President Tinubu’s speech has left no one in doubt that the APC administration has no plans, capacity and competence to handle the crucial and urgent task of governance; which is clearly beyond its managerial faculty,” the statement concluded.
DAILY POST recalls that Tinubu had pleaded with Nigerians to endure the economic hardships brought by the removal of fuel subsidy.
Tinubu made the statement on Sunday in his nationwide broadcast marking the nation’s 63rd Independence Anniversary.
The President said he wished today’s difficulties did not exist, adding that Nigerians must endure ”if we are to reach the good side of our future”.
