As ex-Presidents Shun Eagle Square, PDP Opens Fire on Buhari, APC

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has unleashed a damaging political missile on President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the  failure of the president to address Nigerians at his Wednesday inauguration ceremony shows that

Buhari and the APC are overburdened by the guilt of the allegedly rigged Presidential election.

The PDP bomb blast came as former Nigerian Leaders: Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdulsalami Abubakar were absent at the Buhari show.

Buhari was however, sworn-in at the Eagle Square with former presidents Yakubu Gowon and Ernest Shonekan in attendance, in a ceremony termed low-key by the Federal Government and ended without an inauguration speech by the president.

Days before the event, Obasanjo had continued in his criticism of the Buhari administration, claiming that the terrorist group, Boko Haram was “no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youth in Nigeria which it began as.”

While noting that it is now West African Fulanisation, Islamisation amongst other things, the seeming acidic comment drew the ire of the authorities which responded and berated Obasanjo, calling his comment that imputed ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram and ISWAP as deeply offensive and patently divisive.

Obasanjo supported his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, for the presidential poll against Buhari.

In the mean time, the PDP says what happened at the event shows President Buhari’s insensitivity and the level of derision with which his handlers and party hold Nigerians, perhaps, given that the Presidential mandate they parade did not emanate from the people.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, says PDP holds that the failure by President Buhari and the APC to make any commitment at the ceremony reinforces the truism that a product of flawed electoral process cannot serve the people or meet their aspirations under a constitutional democracy.

According to the PDP, ‘’the poor attendance and passivity of the audience at the ceremony at a time that Nigerians were trooping, in their millions, to the inauguration of state governors elected on the platform of the PDP, manifestly show.

‘’It is indeed pathetic that at a ceremony such as Presidential inauguration, where truly elected leaders address their people, make commitments and unfold their governance direction, President Buhari did not showcase his plans or commitment  to the development of critical sectors of our polity.

‘’It also speaks volumes that President Buhari had nothing to say to the victims of mindless killings and acts of violence in various parts of our country. Moreover, he had no directions toward stemming the economic distress under his administration, for which Nigerians are now resorting to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options.

‘’In failing to address Nigerians, President Buhari turned the inauguration to a parody. The PDP however urges Nigerians to take solace in their determination to retrieve our stolen Presidential mandate at the tribunal so as to entrench a leadership that can lead our nation out of her present predicament.’’

 

Subscribe to our newsletter for latest news and updates. You can disable anytime.