By Derrick Bangura

The Presidency, Sunday night, lambasted the 13 opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors over their position a fortnight ago that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was unfit to participate in the 2023 general election. APC said the governors were delusional and only sought to cover up their criminal failures and damaging PDP years.

PDP governors had passed a damning verdict on the APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari at a meeting on March 24, at the Umuobiakwa country home of their Vice Chairman and Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu. The meeting had 12 governors and a deputy governor in attendance.
In a nine-point communiqué at the forum read by Chairman of the PDP governor’s forum and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, the opposition governors said should APC insist on contesting the forthcoming general election, despite its woeful failure in every aspect of national life, Nigerians should reject the ruling party outright at the polls.
However, in a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), Mallam Garba Shehu, the presidency rejected the PDP communiqué and described it as a work of fiction by those who believed black was white, and one plus one equalled three.

Shehu threw the blame back at the opposition party, and highlighted the alleged damage done by PDP in its 16-year administration, as well as how the APC government had worked in the last seven years to refocus the country.

The statement said the PDP governors’ declaration sought to cover up the failures of the party in office, which the Buhari administration and APC had attempted in the past seven years to repair.

It further carpeted the governors of the opposition party, who were signatories to the communiqué, stressing that their antecedents make them unfit for the trust of Nigerians. The presidency alleged that the PDP governors were persons who had long profited from playing divisive politics, and fanning hate.

The statement read, “The rejected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fantasy communiqué is a work of fiction by those, who truly believe black is white and one plus one equals three.
“This statement of the delusional seeks to cover up the serial and criminal failures of the PDP long and damaging period in office, which the Muhammadu Buhari administration and All Progressives Congress (APC) have strived these past seven years to repair.

“We cannot forget under PDP, the nation had an army full of phantom soldiers, whose pay went to PDP politicians’ pockets while our under-resourced real soldiers died in the fight against terrorist insurgents and our international allies refused to supply Nigeria kit and military aid.
“Today, with the APC, the army is resourced, we have fighter jets from our partners, Boko Haram is being driven from every inch of Nigerian territory, and ISWAP’s leader eliminated in a Nigerian airstrike.

“We cannot ignore how PDP politicians sought – and continue to seek – to inflame ethnic and religious tensions by refusing to even proffer a solution to the herder-farmer clashes, which became most prevalent under their misrule.

“Today, with APC in government, there are ranches on federal land and in state land, where there is the willingness to establish them. Clashes are reduced. Lives are saved, and livelihoods are enriched.

“We will always remember how PDP politicians intentionally encouraged and exploited the black market in currency exchange to convert ill-gotten gains to foreign currency and undermine our national currency, then spirited their funds abroad in their billions and into foreign bank accounts.

“Today, with APC we support our national currency; we have achieved self-sufficiency in rice and fertilizer production; we refuse to allow greedy politicians and businessmen to hide their money overseas, and instead, build an economy here in Nigeria for all.

“We will always know how PDP politicians raided the NNPC, consistently failed to pay into the Federation Account and, in the last year of PDP misrule, $20 billion dollars was simply found ‘missing’.

“Today, with APC, funds from NNPC are directly and transparently used to fund social and health programmes – such as COVID-19 response, the construction of roads, bridges and rail, and equipping of hospitals to cope with new and existing challenges.

“And then there are those PDP leaders in attendance, who signed the communiqué. Who would trust such people with the running of our country? Who can believe a word these people say, as they looked outwardly stylish but harrowed by power-sharing and other troubles inwardly?

“These people, who play politics of division and hate, create communal disturbances, need to change. The governors reeled out numbers on the economy, pretending as if the once-in-a-life COVID-19 pandemic, with its huge and devastating effect, disrupting global supply chains, uniformly battering the world economy never happened.

“COVID-19 brought suffering and hardship to the doorstep of the entire global community, less maybe, of the affluent and pretentious PDP governors and to the credit of this administration, Nigeria’s economy recovered faster and stronger than the entire world ever imagined. Check the facts and leave the politics: What does the country get with this kind of gimmick?”