The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s 63rd Independence Day address to Nigerians as meaningless and without of ideas.
The PDP also claimed that the President’s speech was merely aspirational in the wrong direction, especially in light of the traumatic experiences Nigerians have had under the All Progressives Congress, APC, administration.
According to the opposition, “Tinubu’s admission in his speech that his administration is responsible for the current excruciating hardship in the country validates PDP’s position that the Tinubu-led government lacks the competence, capacity, required skills and humaneness to effectively run the affairs of the nation” .
This was said in a statement issued on Sunday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba.
The PDP emphasized that Nigerians do not need to endure agonizing suffering, as alleged by the President, provided the country is led by a government with the vision and abilities to harness and manage the country’s economic potentials and national comparative advantage.
“The expectation of Nigerians on a day like this was for a Presidential speech that will provide concrete solutions to critical challenges of the nation, including security, as well as the crisis in the electricity and petroleum sectors.
“Indeed, any serious government with requisite capacity and vision will set a Marshall Plan on every critical sector which has the capacity to galvanize and stimulate the economy through job creation.
“The party holds that the manifest non-preparedness and hasty implementation of ill-planned policies by the current APC administration triggered a catastrophic economic failure with unprecedented crippling effect on the productive sector and agonizing hardship on Nigerians,” the PDP said.
The party said it was troubling that Tinubu’s speech had no clear-cut measures to revamp the critical sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, food production, transportation, healthcare, education and other pivotal sectors of life in the country.
“The President’s speech articulated no solutions to the fall of the Naira from N187 to the US Dollar under the PDP to over N1000 under his watch; no answers to the alarming over 40% unemployment rate and the fact that Nigerians are now daily fleeing the country in droves.
“It is heartrending that the President’s speech had no words on the mindless killings, maiming, abductions and mass burial of citizens in various parts of the country under his watch. He had no reassuring words on the abduction of students in Zamfara State as well as other victims of such dastardly acts across the country.
“On the much-touted welfare package, the PDP asserts that there is nothing to cheer over such spiteful tokenism where, amidst unbearable costs, President Tinubu announced a miserable N25,000 per month for six months for average low-grade workers, while still being aspirational on his promise of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.
“Our Party invites Nigerians to note that President Tinubu’s speech has left no one in doubt that the APC administration has no plans, capacity and competence to handle the crucial and urgent task of governance; which is clearly beyond its managerial faculty,” the statement concluded.
According to Platinum Times, Tinubu called on Nigerians to bear the economic sufferings caused by the removal of fuel subsidies.
Tinubu made the remarks during a nationwide broadcast commemorating the nation’s 63rd anniversary of independence on Sunday.
The President expressed his hope that today’s issues would not exist, but added that Nigerians must persevere “if we are to reach the bright side of our future.”