Resign since you can’t fix economy, Atiku tells Buhari
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign for
admitting on Friday that the nation’s economy was in bad shape.
Buhari reportedly made the confession during his meeting
with the 36 governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public
Communication, Mr Phrank Shaibu, on
Sunday, Atiku said the President’s
confession that the economy was in bad shape was not only a ploy to attract the sympathy of Nigerians but
also aimed at getting a soft landing.
He said, “The result,
of course, is his 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
this frank remark 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 leadership which has the political
will, administrative experience and sound economic acumen to get Nigeria
working again.”
The former Vice-President expressed his disappointment that
Buhari had continued to blame the PDP for the country’s bad economy, saying the
President had reportedly confirmed that he was incapable of fixing the economy.
Atiku said Buhari should step down from his position since
the economy was in bad shape.
He said Buhari’s admission had confirmed the British multinational
bank HSBC’s prediction that re-electing him in 2019 could plunge Nigeria into a
deeper economic hardship.
Atiku said, “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 All Progressives Congress’ Federal Government has brought succour to ordinary Nigerians when
President Buhari himself has admitted to
the governors that the economy has gone beyond his control.
Power generation has actually dipped from 4,949 megawatts,
which the PDP left in 2015 to less than 3,500 megawatts even though Buhari’s
managers consistently claim that 7,000 megawatts are what the country is
currently generating. What more evidence do we need to know that the APC has
been a curse rather than a blessing to our country?”
Atiku lamented that the President had failed to apply new
methods in addressing the challenges facing the country.
He said, “Our
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 who 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 President
was tired and should, therefore, be asked to return “to his much cherished
sedentary, pastoral and rustic lifestyle in his country home in Daura and then
leave the rigours and highly strategic art of governance to those who know how
to govern and get the economy working again.”
But the Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said he would not comment on the issue.
He referred The PUNCH to the spokesman for the APC, Lanre
Issa-Onilu.
Adesina said, “I don’t respond to PDP issues. Whenever it is
the PDP, talk to the APC. Journalists should know this.”
When reminded that the question was on Atiku’s call for Buhari to resign for admitting that the
economy was in bad shape, Adesina said he would not talk.
“Or do we need a prophet to tell us that the President’s
admission is a vindication of our long-held position, and indeed the forecast by HSBC recently
cited by the Nigerian media where the bank said a second term for Buhari would
greatly affect the economy of the country?”
He added, “The exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar
when the APC assumed office in 2015 was about N170 (official rate) to $1. Today
it is N360 to $1. Today millions of Nigerians, most of them youths, are
unemployed, forcing them to become professional beggars who wait for the FG’s monthly N5,000 handout and N10,000
Tradermoni aimed at bribing them to re-elect the party in the forthcoming
elections.
When one of our correspondents got across to Issa-Onilu, he
also directed him (the correspondent) to
spokesman for the President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr. Festus
Keyamo (SAN).
However, calls made to the telephone of Keyamo were not
answered.
He also did not respond to a text message sent to him as of
the time of filing this report.
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