According to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai’s frustration and threats regarding the possibility of inviting foreign mercenaries for fighting terrorism in his state are further confirmations and admittances of the failure of the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the party argued that el-Rufai could not distance himself from those fostering and aiding the insecurity, which subsequently led to acts of terrorism sweeping the nation.
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According to Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, “the alarming insecurity situation in Nigeria that has led to the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of our compatriots since the APC took office in 2015 is the result of actions and comments by APC and government officials who encouraged terrorism.”
Nigerians can recall how ahead of the 2019 general elections, el-Rufai threatened that “those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the persons that will come and intervene, they will go back in body bags.”
As the statement continued: “Nigerians have not forgotten how in November 2020, the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, through its spokesperson, Shehu Garba, rationalised the beheading of 43 rice farmers in Borno State by terrorists and blamed the farmers for not obtaining clearance before going to their farms.
“Governor el-Rufai should know that he and other APC leaders cannot under any circumstance distance themselves from blame in the worsening insecurity, pain, horror, social dislocation of families and life-discounting experiences being encountered daily by Nigerians under the APC.”
However, in the meantime, the Presidency has published a list of mistakes that it has alleged the PDP government made and concluded that Nigerians cannot put their trust back in them.
This was in response to the communique issued by the PDP Governors’ Forum, as stated by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam. Garba Shehu.
A communiqué issued by the PDP governors on March 23 stated that life was better under PDP administrations from 1999 to 2015 than it is now under the APC government.
In a delayed response, the Presidency yesterday issued a statement, entitled:
‘Issues from the PDP fantasy communique from Umuahia,’ said the governors of the former ruling party were trying to cover up “the serial and criminal failures of the PDP’s long and damaging period in office.”
In part, the statement stated:
“The rejected PDP fantasy communiqué is a work of fiction by those who truly believe black is white and one plus one equals three. 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.
“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.”
In addition, the Presidency accused the PDP of deliberately fostering and exploiting the black market in foreign exchange in order to convert unjustly accumulated funds into foreign currency and undermine the Nigerian currency.
The document also claimed that under the current administration, the national currency had become more stable; that the country has also achieved self sufficiency in rice and fertilizer production as the largesse of greedy politicians and businessmen have been curbed, as no one is able to hide their money overseas, but people are able to build an economy in Nigeria.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK