The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over his comment last Friday that Nigeria’s economy was in a bad shape.
President Buhari reportedly stated this at a meeting with state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The president told us that “the economy is in bad shape and that we have to come together, think and rethink on the way forward,” Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara who briefed journalists after the meeting said.
No presidency official has refuted the statement by Governor Yari who is of the same party as the president, APC, and is the chairman of the Nigeria Govenrors Forum.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Alhaji Abubakar described President Buhari’s statement as a ploy to attract the sympathy of Nigerians and a disguise to get a soft landing from aggrieved Nigerians unhappy with his performance.
“The result of course is this late hour confession of failure on the eve of our general elections, in the hope that millions of Nigerians, whom he has condemned to poverty and hardship will give him a clap for failing abysmally. I dare say that President Buhari has miscalculated badly on this matter because Nigerians are simply fed up with him.”
“The economy has collapsed under his watch and he has by this frank remarks admitted that he has no idea on how to fix it and that is why he summoned the governors to help him. This is really very sad because President Buhari has run out of time and what Nigerians need now is a leadership which has the political will, administrative experience and sound economic acumen to get Nigeria working again,” Mr Shuaibu said.
“But then, President Buhari has only confirmed what we have known all along; that he has wrecked our once robust economy, that he has no solutions to the challenges facing our country and that the situation can only get worse under his administration.
“The Buhari Presidency has continued to increase its expensive running costs and has failed to offer any explanation or recover the over N11 trillion (allegedly wasted) from our oil sector by APC interests, yet Mr. President is asking Nigerians to make more sacrifices,” the statement read in part.”
Atiku said the honourable step to take is for the president to step down from his position.
“Unless those in charge of the APC and the party’s supporters are, as usual, suffering from some form of self-delusion, it just does not make any sense for them to say that the APC-led federal government had brought succour to the ordinary Nigerian when President Muhammadu Buhari himself has admitted to Governors of the 36 States of the federation that the economy has gone beyond his control,” the spokesperson said.
“Or do we need a prophet to tell us that the president’s admission of the state of the nation’s economy is a vindication of our long-held position and indeed the forecast by HSBC recently cited by the Nigerian media where the bank had said a second term for Buhari would greatly stunt the economy of the country?” he asked.
He called on the APC to apologise to Nigerians for the party’s performance since 2015.
According to him, the hopes for better governance and improved standard of living that many had nursed with the assumption of office by President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015 has since given way to despair and hopelessness.
“The exchange rate of the Naira to the US dollar when the APC assumed office in 2015 was about 170 (official rate) to the dollar. Today it is 360 to the dollar. Today, millions of Nigerians, most of them youths, are unemployed, forcing them to become professional beggars who wait with bated breath for FG’s monthly N5,000 handout and N10,000 Tradermoni aimed at bribing them to re-elect the party in the forthcoming elections,” the statement said.
“Power generation has actually dipped from 4,949 megawatts PDP left in 2015 to less than 3,500 megawatts even though Buhari’s handlers consistently claim that 7,000 megawatts is what is currently being generated. What more evidence do we need to know that the APC has been a curse rather than a blessing to our country,” he queried
“It is amazing that, in this day and age when leaders of nations are expected to be creative and think outside the box, by applying new digital tools and embracing new thinking in addressing the emerging challenges to modern governance, our own President is still living in the Paleolithic age of blame game and buck passing as responsible for his failures. What this simply means is that President Buhari was not really prepared for governance and did not even understand the simplest intricacies of running a national economy as big as Nigeria.
“This is really tragic and it is obvious that President Buhari has come to the end of the road and has completely given up on the next steps to advance Nigeria, while those whom his dear wife openly declared misled his administration into this economic quagmire are still drumming up support for his next level of more hardship, suffering, unprovoked deaths as a result of misgovernance,” the statement said.
He said the only way out of the nation’s problems is for Nigerians to vote en-mass for Atiku Abubakar whose policy document focuses on job creation, ensuring security, growing businesses, developing power, and water infrastructure, agriculture and education and how ‘Nigeria’s next president will empower women.’
“The next generation of Nigerians are looking up to a visionary and cosmopolitan leadership, headed by a solid and steady leader, that will free up the space, remove unnecessary ancient cum bureaucratic obstacles and launch Nigeria into the competitive global space instead of de-marketing the country in the eyes of the global community. President Buhari should wake up and smell the aroma of the coffee Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is brewing. He is tired and at his wits end and it is time for him to vacate active task of presidency and return to his much cherished sedentary, pastoral and rustic lifestyle in his country home in Daura then leave the rigours and highly strategic art of governance to those who know how to govern and get the economy working again,” he concluded.