The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday described President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day broadcast as unpresidential, an insult to Nigerians, and a mockery of democracy.
The party said the president failed to address the problems facing the country, and noted that the broadcast was an insult to the psyche of Nigerians and a mockery of national integrity.
The PDP, in the statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the speech was completely unpresidential, lacking in patriotic stance and replete with manifest inconsistencies, contradictions, paradoxes and false performance claims, which further confirmed that the dear fatherland was in wrong hands.
The party noted that President Buhari, in his recorded 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.
It added that the elements above were the very fundamentals of an independent state, and said the president failed to address them “because his administration had violated them all”.
Regretting that Buhari had no forceful reassurances on the challenge of escalated insecurity under his watch, PDP said the president “had 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,” the PDP said.
The party said if anything, Mr. President only succeeded in further demonstrating that his administration was, indeed, in no position to deliver a credible, acceptable, and satisfactory Independence address.
The party continued: “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.
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.
“While other leaders motivate their citizens on a day like this, President Buhari is presenting uninspiring claims, propaganda, and empty promises.”
