PDP decries Buhari’s Independence Day broadcast
…Say speech mockery of democracy
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day broadcast, describing it as lacking in substance.
The party said the broadcast is as an insult on the psyche of Nigerians and a mockery of national integrity as an independent state, adding that the speech “was completely unpresidential, lacking in patriotic stance and replete with manifest inconsistencies, contradictions, paradoxes and false performance claims, which further confirm that our dear fatherland is in wrong hands.”
In a statement Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party noted that President Buhari, in his address, failed to forcefully address the key issues of freedom, social justice, constitutional order, separation of powers, rule of law, human rights, credible elections, national cohesion, accountability and transparency in government.
PDP said the factors it enumerated are the very fundamentals of an independent state, asserting that Buhari ignored these factors in his address because his administration has violated them all.
The party regretted that President Buhari has no forceful reassurances on the challenges of escalated insecurity under his watch, no clear-cut and operable blueprint to revamp the economy, which his administration wrecked in a period of four years resulting in so much hardship and despondency that Nigerians now resort to suicide and slavery abroad as options.
“Our party notes that this address further exposes that the Buhari Presidency is not interested in nation building; that it is completely disconnected from the people and remains insensitive to the plights of Nigerians.
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“The PDP states that if anything, Mr. President only succeeded in further demonstrating that his administration is, indeed, in no position to deliver a credible, acceptable and satisfactory independence address.
“This is so because under the Buhari Presidency, our nation has experienced the worst form of division, deprivation, human right abuse, constitutional violations, disregard to rule of law, electoral malpractices, disobedience to court order, disrespect for separation of powers and curtailing of press freedom.
“The PDP further laments that due to the incompetence and legitimacy challenges confronting the Buhari Presidency, our nation is losing her voice and due regard in the international arena; as the administration has remained lacking in the required capacity and boldness to forcefully engage other world leaders on critical issues.
“The dearth in foreign direct investment and the inhuman treatments being meted out on our citizens in countries where we were once held in very high esteem are some of the injuries our nation is suffering under the Buhari administration,” said the party.
The PDP described as depressing that while other leaders motivate their citizens on a day like this, President Buhari is presenting uninspiring claims, propaganda and empty promises.
It however, urged Nigerians not to despair, but keep hope alive as they collectively await the Supreme Court to deliver justice and retrieve its presidential mandate, so that the nation can have a leadership that it truly deserves.
