The Presidential Candidate of
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has called on
President Muhammadu Buhari to vacate his post over his alleged confession on
Friday that the nation’s economy is in bad shape.
In
a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public
Communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described President Buhari’s confession
that the “Nigerian economy has collapsed under his watch as not only a pathetic
ploy to attract the sympathy of Nigerians with his false honesty but also, a
disguise to get a soft landing from the people he has put under terrible
suffering and hardship in the last three and half years.”
“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 his 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,” he stated.
Atiku,
who continued on President Buhari’s “confession of the failed economy” said
Buhari “has continued to exhibit his cluelessness, incapacity and ineptitude in
handling the economy by once again invoking the tired mantra of blaming the
past administration and 16 years of PDP rule for his own failure.”
Atiku
who was reacting to the outcome of the meeting between the President and
Governors of 36 states said “the honourable step to take is for the President
to step down from his position.”
He
said “the confession by the President that the economy had gone out of control”
was a confirmation of the forecast by the British multinational bank, HSBC
“which predicted that re-electing President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 could
plunge Nigeria into deeper economic hardship.”
“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 statement 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 all Nigerians “for bringing them nothing but
suffering of unquantifiable proportion since 2015, and to make a solemn pledge
not to have anything to do with governance, especially with the 2019 elections
fast approaching.”
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 added.
“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.”
“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 mis-governance.”
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 life style 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.
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