PDP, Falana, Balarabe Musa, Okogie, others score Buhari at 2

. It’s a failure, nothing to celebrate – PDP

. APC govt has justified purpose of being in power – Spokesman

As the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration clocks two years in office today, May 29, 2017, a cross section of Nigerians who spoke to The Daily Times on Sunday described the performance of administration as unimpressive, urging the government rise up and deliver the change it promised during the run up to the 2015 general election.

This is even as the National Caretaker committee (NCC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on Sunday, assessed the two years administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a damning verdict that the regime is a failure.

The NCC of the PDP pointedly said that there is nothing for Nigerians to celebrate about the two years government of the APC.

The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja, rated the Buhari’s regime low in virtually in areas.

The national caretaker committee however called on all the citizens to continue praying for the full restoration of President Buhari’s health and his safe return to the country.

“We also urge the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to assent to the 2017 National Budget as a matter of urgency and see to its successful implementation in order to reduce the sufferings of the people”, the PDP said.

In his assessment, foremost lawyer and Right activist, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, in an interview with The Daily Times on Sunday recalled that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) before assuming power promised to fight
terrorism, abolish corruption, end impunity and change poverty to prosperity.

He noted that two years after assuming office, the administration has fought and tamed the insurgents but has not defeated terrorism.

Falana, observed that although the Buhari’s administration has attempted to challenge corruption, that the monster is fighting back.

He stressed further that because the administration allowed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to continue to control the economy of the nation, poverty is on the ascendancy.

He urged the labour movement and all progressive forces to mobilise the people to liberate the nation.

The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus, Cardinal OlubunmI Okojie, speaking to The Daily Times from London where he is currently running a medical check-up, acknowledged that the APC government of change started well but stated his reservations.

His words: “They had a very good plan, but the change we have now after two years is not what we expected. The change they waved at us that attracted a good number of Nigerians – including myself, has suddenly flopped. If you remember, the inaugural speech of President Buhari, his promise about the economy, insurgency like Boko Haram, the Niger Delta militants, the Chibok girls, corruption, and so on, everyone was happy. But unfortunately, and I am laying emphasis on the word, all his promises have flopped.

They delayed here and there and our expectations were just thrown out – and I think it must be due largely to those people who were not originally APC members that crossed the carpet from PDP into APC, and unfortunately again, they were the same people that destroyed PDP, and that’s why this APC government is the way it is today.

“Secondly, the man who brought the President in, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President began to see him as an enemy and that is how the whole thing started. Look at the economy, for example: Buhari began to put the wrong people in top positions. How for example could he have given so many ministries to one man, the Babatunde Fashola example? That was when everything went out of hand.”

In his assessment, elder statesman and former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa was blunt and brief on the subject when The Daily Times asked his take.

His words: “The only way to explain everything is that the change they proposed to Nigerians is a political deceit because we have not seen any change. Real change has to be qualitative and fundamental.

“I didn’t see any qualitative change. I didn’t see any fundamental change. All we have seen is a variety of public deceit.”

Reviewing the two years of the current administration, National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, declared that the performance of the Buhari administration was unimpressive.

He said: “If you look at key areas where President Buhari promised Nigerians of change during his campaign, you will agree they all have not succeeded. He is not even coordinated as it relates to governance.

“He took many months to appoint ministers, for example and in the last two years we have not seen any move he has actualised that Nigerians can say, yes, this one stands out. There are complaints of hardship everywhere, yet if you look at the oil rig sales and increase in other of the nation’s resources, this present government must have had more money in the last two years than the four years of the previous administration, but we have not seen anything concrete on ground to show for it.”

Pointing that all indices have gone from bad to worse in the last two years, the political activist recalled that the stock market has lost close to two trillion Naira:

“Many more people have gone out of jobs in the same period, the value of Naira kept sliding down on daily basis, while most industries have closed down because they cannot get forex to produce and bring in the expected profit; then rate of kidnappings, robbery and all kinds of crime are on the increase. Also, foreign companies are leaving the country in droves and these have brought us to social and economic collapse.

“Furthermore, we have seen the worst of insecurity in Nigeria in the last two years,” he continued. “We have Fulani herdsmen raiding Eastern and Western communities, raping and killing people at will and nobody is checking them because they are overprotected and pampered. So there are serious problems everywhere, and unfortunately, we are also moving up to the next election crisis.

“But if these four years fail to put sensible growth in the economy and life of the people, the government has to take a retreat and take more serious approach to governance and, above all, accede to the call for the restructuring of the geo-political zones of the country because if this call is not heeded, nothing significant is going to happen and no change can be expected with the current structure. That is the way forward.”

Olubanjo Olugbenga of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) represents the pastoral hierarchy in the review of the political and economic change of the Buhari-led administration two years on.

He reasoned that change is a beautiful word, but stated that: “As beautiful as it is, it is something a lot of people don’t like, even though we want it, yet change is the only thing that is constant in life, as the saying goes.

“To be fair to government, we can see the body language of Mr. President that he really wants to effect change; but it has been established, and we have seen that very thing which they promised to change, rising up and fighting back. The anti-corruption campaign, for example, we have seen instances where corruption really fought back and it is still fighting, which confirms my earlier assertion that people may want change but they don’t really like to see it happen and that is one area Mr. President is having problem.

“His greatest mistake was that he had thought that everybody, including political associates he came along with, truly wanted that change, but after he was sworn in, he soon realised that it is not everybody that want that change. A tree cannot make a forest: if he wants that change and all his ministers and members of the parliament don’t want it, then there is very little he can do about it.

“Overall, after years, I will score him an average of about 50 percent.”
Situations analyst/human rights enthusiast and parish priest, St. Alphonsus, Aboru, Ipaja, Lagos Monsignor Livinus

Ukah said: “The real meaning of change is not what the Buhari-led government is advocating. The expectations of Nigerians were that a change for better living conditions, practical change, not the philosophical definition of change, like when they say “you can’t cross a river twice”.

“What Nigerians expected in the two years of this administration is a change in style of government that will effect new infrastructure, change in living standard, and change in attitude as well as the kind of change that will put money in the pocket of the poor and needy which form the bulk of the Nigerian electorate, not this kind of change that has put us in economic inequality; a system where leaders are enjoying themselves while people who elected them are suffering.

Meanwhile, appraising the two years of APC in government, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the has justified the purpose of being in power.

Abdulahi said there was reason to celebrate in spite of the difficulty Nigerians may be going through.
He said: “I believe very strongly that there is every reason to celebrate. I know that because of the difficulty that people are going through, there is a temptation to think that there is no much to celebrate. But I think that if we look more closely, paying more attention to where we are coming from and where we were two years ago, you will see that we have more than sufficient good reason to celebrate. There was a reason that Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for APC a little over two years ago. There was a reason that for the first time in our history, Nigerians rejected a sitting government and those reasons were quite compelling and those are the reasons that justify APC’s existence in government today at the federal level and in the various states.

“I would like to say that there are three things that President Buhari promised as we went round the country campaigning. One was that he promised to fight corruption. Secondly, he said he will fight insecurity especially as it relates to Boko Haram and thirdly, he said he will create employment opportunity for the young people.

“Let us take the issue of Boko Haram. I have said it repeatedly that we tend to forget one fundamental fact which was that at the time we were preparing for election in 2015, more than 50,000 square kilometers of Nigeria territory were physically occupied by Boko Haram, where they declared a caliphate and planted their flag. I remember that in trying to make sense of it, foreign media said the area occupied by Boko Haram was the size of Belgium. Two years down the line, what is the size of Nigeria territory occupied by Boko Haram? Zero, including the dreaded Sambisa forest. For us, this is a remarkable achievement and we believe that in that respect.

“President Buhari and the government of APC have justified the purpose of coming to power. Yes, many of the Chibok girls are still in captivity, but some of them have been recovered and more are still being recovered. For the parents of those recovered, you cannot tell them there is no reason to celebrate. For those who had to abandon their families and homes two years ago because of the menace of Boko Haram and has returned home today, you cannot tell them that there is nothing to celebrate.

“Let us take the issue of corruption. We must not forget that before APC came into power two years ago, we knew what was going on. We knew that people were stealing this country dry, but it was almost like it has been accepted as if it was normal. People were stealing as if it was an entitlement. But what do you find happening today? You listen to the radio, watch the televisions, read the newspapers, Nigerians are talking about corruption every day.

It means that as a nation, there is nothing in our DNA that accepts corruption. It means that we are telling the world that as a country, we don’t want corruption and that is why we are having that conversation. You hear people talking about whistleblowers, people talk about the huge amount of money being recovered, people being dragged before the court, former governors being remanded in prison custody for corrupt practices, you hear about former ministers being held in detention and prison for corruption. These are things that were almost impossible two years ago. The challenges are still there, but this is the progress we have made in two years”.