The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the criticism that trailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s independence day speech as a sheer act of irresponsibility.
The main opposition party, PDP had on Thursday accused the President of not being responsive to the plight and fury of Nigerians when he again confirmed his stand on the increase in electricity tariff and price of petroleum product.
This was contained in a statement issued on Friday by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena who maintained that the surge in electricity tariff and petrol would be beneficial to Nigerians.
Nabena, however, admonished Nigerians not to criticize the president but should rather applaud his effort and courage in taking bold steps which he said the erstwhile ruling party could not take in 16 years.
Thus, the statement read in part:” It has become clearer that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and its elements need the sympathies of all well-meaning Nigerians because the vision and the ideal dream on how to build a great nation seems to have eluded the former ruling party.
“Understandably, the PDP leaders would prefer continuity of the locust era but the reassuring take away in the speech of Mr President is a spoiler to their evil plans. The speech further show commitment to invest more in Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution, digital economy, medium and small scale industries as a sure way of gradually lifting people out of poverty.
He noted that the reassurance given by the President speech, especially “to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty” should have grabbed the interest of patriotic citizens but as a result on bad politics on the path of the PDP and its elements, such speech would be met with “blind eyes”.
“Surprisingly, the opposition party had gut to criticize the commendable and courageous step taken by this administration to end the era of robbing Peter to pay Paul in the oil sector by totally embrace deregulation which in turn will bring about massive job creation, business opportunities and attract more investors. For so many years, the dying PDP could not summon courage to do this simply because of corruption.
“President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC administration are enjoying the goodwill of Nigerians in majority and our people know that the challenge associated with the removal of fuel subsidy is temporal. Therefore the manipulation tactics and the hatred being spread by the PDP and its leaders will definitely fall on the infertile soil.
“For us, we can only urge the prayer warriors around to always remember the dying PDP in prayers while Nigeria continues to move on the path of greatness” the stament added.
