The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the New Year’s address by President Muhammadu Buhari to Nigerians was “empty and directionless,” stressing that it confirmed that the nation had become leaderless.
It has also called on Nigerians to urgently rescue the country from collapse on account of the “incompetent, uninspiring and lethargic leadership of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.”
The opposition party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan lamented that it was appalling that all Buhari could offer a troubled and frustrated nation was a “regurgitated script full of lame excuses and empty promises that address nothing.”
It said the least Nigerians expected from Mr. President, in the new year, was a decisive will to tackle the security challenges by reviewing his parade and heeding the demands by Nigerians to rejig the nation’s security architecture.
“The myriads of lame excuses in Mr. President’s address again underlines our national misfortune of a weak leadership that is unable to resolutely confront and vanquish bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and vandals who are now holding our nation hostage, ravaging our communities, kidnapping and beheading our compatriots without restrain.
“On the economy, Mr. President failed to articulate a definite economic recovery blueprint.
“He had no clear strategies to shore up the value of our naira, repay and end our foreign borrowings, revamp our external reserves, give hope to foreign investors, move promises of job creation from the perpetual drawing board and guarantee food security, health care among others.
“The situation at hand requires more than an armchair commander-in-chief who only dwells on excuses for manifest failures.
“President Buhari’s new year address only points to the fact that our nation is in dire need of a leadership that is willing, able and ready to engage from the fronts.
“Mr. President had the opportunity to redeem his administration by taking steps that will address high costs of food, education and housing deficit; address the high price of fuel, multiple taxes and tariffs that bear pressure on businesses and families as well as how to enhance national productivity and grow our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“In the same vein, our party finds it lamentable that President Buhari, in his reference to the demonstration by our youths, did not make any decisive pronouncement to end the on-going persecution of EndSARS protesters or order a Presidential inquest into the reported Lekki killing.
“Moreover, the failure by Mr. President to make direct commitment on budgetary provisions exposes a lack of will and direction, and shows that the next two years under the Buhari-led APC administration would leave our nation with forlorn hope,” the party said.
