Knocks for Buhari on Independence Day speech

It’s slap on face of Nigerians, says PDP

Sound, fury signifying nothing, SMBLF insists Police to charge 30

Broadcast rekindles hope, APC affirms

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday described President Muhammadu Buhari’s independence anniversary speech as a huge slap on the sensibilities of Nigerians.

This was contained in a statement by National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan.

He said Buhari’s attempt to justify the increase of fuel price in Nigeria by comparing it to the N168 per liter cost in Saudi Arabia is a morbid joke, even as he noted that the minimum wage in Saudi Arabia is N305,113 (3000 Saudi Riyals), ten times higher than the paltry N30,000 which is largely unimplemented in Nigeria.

“Is Mr. President not aware that, on the average, a person working in Saudi Arabia earns around 4,230SAR (N430, 267) to 16,700 SAR (N1,698,693) per month?

“Our party charges Mr. President to always check his books before making such offensive comparisons including the price in Egypt where monthly average earning is around N222, 841 (9,200 EGP) against our N30,000.

“In comparing our costs with other countries such as Ghana, Chad and Niger where purchasing powers of citizens are much more higher, did Mr. President reflect on the cost of house rent, education, healthcare and average dependence on fuel for daily survival by ordinary citizens as obtainable in Nigeria?

“If the flawed assertions as evident in Mr. President’s speech are a direct reflection of how policies are formulated in his administration, then one needs not wonder why our economy is in doldrums,” he said.

The PDP therefore urged Mr. President to engender harmony and productivity by allowing for more robust discourse that would lead to affordable prices for fuel and other essential commodities in the country.

Similarly, Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) said the speech was empty.

It said: “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has examined the broadcast of President Buhari to mark the occasion of the 60 years of independence of Nigeria and disappointingly concludes that it was like a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

In a statement signed by Yinka Odumakin (South West), Chief Guy Ikokwu (South East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South South), and Dr. Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the group said: “In the midst of all the country is going through that requires the leadership to summon the constituent units to the table of brotherhood to seek fundamental ways out, all we were treated to were the usual bland sermons and empty rhetoric.

“The President said he was engaging in self-reflection but he never remembered how our founding fathers negotiated a federal constitution which put us on the path of development in the early years of independence until military intervention set us on the ruinous unitary lane which has fostered underdevelopment to the point that we are now the global secretariat of poverty at 60.

“It is shameful that on this type of occasion, our President had to be lecturing us on why we had to pay more for fuel because countries like Ghana, Egypt and Niger are paying more.

“The President would have been more inspiring if he had used the opportunity to lay out the process of reconstituting Nigeria to return it to the path of productivity, autonomy for the federating units and sustainable peace and development.”

SMBLF concluded: “To leave Nigeria under its failing structure and be talking of launching ethical whatever is a meaningless distraction.”

But the Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom, Mr Nkereuwem Enyongekere, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech to the nation rekindled hope that Nigeria will be a great nation.

Enyongekere made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo on Thursday while reacting to the president’s speech.

He said that the presidential broadcast was all embracing and a call for all Nigerians to shun what divided us and embrace the ideals of what unites us.

“The president’s 60th anniversary address to the nation is all embracing because it reflects the past, present and future, with a clarion call to all to come together to build a new Nigeria.

“It goes a long way to strengthen and brighten the prospects and expectations of Nigerians that in spite of military incursions for 29 years.

“It shows maturity and sincerity of a leader who is willing to make every Nigerian a team player.

The president’s speech indeed justifies that Nigeria is in a diamond age,” he said. He urged Nigerians to embrace the president’s call for reorientation of our values, think first of the country Nigeria before our individual regions.

The publicity secretary called on all Nigerians irrespective of political divides to support the Buhari-led administration and his with strong hope that Nigeria will be great.

Also, reflecting on the state of the nation, Governor of Sokoto State and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum Aminu Tambuwal lamented that the nation appears to be on a reverse gear; living on past glory.

In a statement, he said: “The Nigerian condition has continued to worsen with the prevalent social dichotomies widening the country`s existing fault-lines; and thereby posing great challenges to the quest for national integration and inter-ethnic unity and social harmony.

“It cannot be a measure of development that there is a mushrooming of ethnic and regional organizations and local militias competing with the State for attention.

“Today, Nigeria has to contend with herders-farmers clashes, banditry, terrorism, cultism, kidnappings for ransom, and agitations for self determinations and militancy which have tended to drive a wedge in the chords that hold us together as one united people.

“In the last five years, under the APC-controlled administration, Nigeria has continued on the downward slide into extreme decay, with the country displacing India as the poverty capital of the world, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians living on less than $1.9 US Dollars a day (Brooking Institute 2018).

We as leaders must strive harder to make sure that poverty is minimised in all parts of the country.

“This is even made worse by the fact that in 2019 Nigeria ranked 93rd out of 117 qualifying countries with a score of 27.9 below Guinea and Mali in the Global Hunger index.

“It is also regrettable to note that the Buhari-led APC administration has plunged Nigeria deeper into the debt trap after the country had exited from its initial debt burden from the London and Paris Clubs under the PDP-led administration.

“It is indeed sad to observe that Nigeria’s external debt hit a 16 year high of $27 billion in December 2019, just higher than the $20.8 billion in external level as at 2005 when Nigeria exited from the club of its foreign creditors.

Any loan acquired that is not directly tied to meaningful infrastructure that can help Nigeria progress should not be taken.

“There is no doubt that the country appears to be more divided today than ever before as result of divisive policies being pursued by the APC-led administration.

This has given rise to increasing clamour within the polity for another look on how Nigeria is governed.

As leaders, we must rise to the challenge.” Suggesting a way forward, Tambuwal said: “It is time for leadership that will answer the yearnings of the millions of Nigerians who labour every single day for our great country.

We must unite and give hope to the aspirations of the next generation.

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We cannot continue to plead indifference or remain helpless in the face of the challenges confronting us as a people. Nigeria is our common heritage.

“We must not allow the worsening social contradictions to destroy our country. At 60, we have indeed come of age.

And we are optimistic that the nation can be rescued from the current slide.

Given the evident social discontent within the polity, there is a need for a national conversation on the way forward for our beloved but beleaguered nation.”