Budget presentation booing: Vote of no confidence on Buhari, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that yesterday’s booing of President Muhammadu Buhari by some lawmakers during the presentation of the 2019 budget indicated that Nigerians have passed a vote of no confidence on the President. The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO), at a Press Conference addressed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan said it was not true that the incident was instigated by the PDP. He said the direct booing, jeering and rejection of President Muhammadu Buhari was done by members of the two chambers of the National Assembly. He said “the spontaneous action of the lawmakers, at the joint session of the National Assembly, is a resounding and unambiguous vote of no confidence and unmistaken expression of President Buhari’s rejection by the Nigerian public, across the divides, who are fed up with his incompetent, divisive and corrupt administration, which has brought so much hunger, starvation, escalated violence and bloodletting to our country. “Today’s open rejection of President Buhari by the lawmakers, representing all the federal constituencies and senatorial zones across our country, shows that Mr. President no longer enjoys the support of Nigerians across the country; that he no longer has any political foothold and only awaits a crushing defeat in the 2019 general election. “What else do Nigerians want from a President, who has openly confessed his lack of capacity to find solutions to the myriads of problems his administration brought and on that note promised Nigerians more sufferings and hardship in the coming year? “This is more so as his scripted presentation at the budget session was full of false performance indices, claims of non-existent projects, half-truths, bogus fiscal projections, beguilement and new list of fake promises, which Nigerians have since seen through”. The party insisted that the President dwelt on fictitious figures, unrealistic projections and could not give a credible account of the performance of the 2018 budget, which like other annual budgets, since he came into office. The PDP also said in the budget, it is ridiculous that Mr. President can defend N60 million litres of fuel as daily consumption by vehicles in Nigeria whereas before he was elected into office, he publicly declared that the use of 30 million litres of fuel per day was a fraud. “Is not also ludicrous that between 2015 and now, the figure of daily consumption of fuel has doubled in the same economy that has witnessed a secession twice under his watch?”, he quipped. He added that the President could not give cogent explanation on the handling of defence budgets under his watch particularly in the face of allegations of diversion of military funds to fund his re-election bid as well as the neglect of the troops, leading to the killing of hundreds of our soldiers fighting insurgency in the North East. “By today’s experience, it should be clear to Mr. President and the APC that the game is up and that Nigerian are no longer ready to accept an incompetent administration that thrives only in propaganda, falsehood and deceit. Our citizens are very eager to usher in a new era of credible, transparent and competent government; the very reason they are rallying behind the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar”, he said. The party alleged that all that is left for President Buhari and the APC is to accept their rejection and end their schemes to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security forces into their desperation to cause confusion and rig the election as such will be firmly resisted by Nigerians. Tunde Opalana, Abuja