APC to PDP: Tell Nigerians your plans, stop mudslinging

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the PDP to tell Nigerians how it plans to move from the near zero governance of the past six years of the Jonathan administration to good and purposeful governance, instead of engaging in perpetual and tiring mudslinging.

“We believe that elections should be about issues that will be beneficial to the electorate, not about throwing everything but the kitchen sink at a particular candidate simply because of his soaring acceptability.

‘’Therefore, it is time for the PDP to end the muckraking and tell Nigerians how it plans to tackle the worsening insecurity in the land, the collapsing national currency, with the US dollar now exchanging for 215 Naira, massive unemployment, especially among the youth, decayed infrastructure and the unprecedented corruption under President Jonathan’s watch,’’ the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

It said the essence of the sustained campaign of calumny against Gen. Buhari by the PDP is to distract the APC from telling Nigerians how it plans to effect the much-needed change from zero to purposeful governance, and also to sweep under the carpet the glaring failures of the Jonathan administration.

“In both instances, the PDP has failed, as Nigerians have refused to be swayed by all the scandal mongering by the PDP, while the APC has remained focused in selling its game-changing manifesto to the citizenry,’’ APC said.

The party said the PDP and President Jonathan should tell Nigerians what happened to the 20-billion-dollar missing oil funds, amid concerns that the money could have vanished into the ruling party’s slush funds for electioneering campaign.

“Nigerians are also asking: Mr. President, where are the Chibok girls who were abducted nine months ago, and whom you promised to reunite with their families? What happened to the stage-managed truce with Boko Haram and why has no one been punished for deceiving Nigerians? Mr. President, where is the report of the forensic auditing you ordered into the missing $20b oil funds? It is now two months since the deadline set by your Finance Minister for the release of that audit report. Will the report go the way of others before it?

“Mr. President, why are our soldiers being sent to battle Boko Haram without the necessary equipment, even though trillions of Naira have been budgeted for the security and defence sector under your watch? Why do soldiers have to buy even their uniforms and the wounded among them financing their medical treatment, as some soldiers said in a CNN interview?

‘’Mr. President, why have you castrated the anti-corruption agencies, rendering them comatose and unable to tackle the runaway corruption under your watch? What signals are you sending to the EFCC, for example, when you picked as your campaign spokesman the same man who is facing corruption charges? Is that a way of telling the EFCC to let the notorious suspect off the hook?

“Mr. President, you vowed that those involved in the 2.6 trillion Naira fuel subsidy scam will never go unpunished, but many months later none has been punished and it is back to business as usual.. When will you consider stealing of public funds a serious act of corruption, sir?

APC said the truth is that the PDP and President Jonathan do not have any answers to those serious issues raised above; hence they have decided to engage in a multi-pronged approach of mudslinging, campaign for election postponement and the instigation of violence to scuttle next month’s general elections, among others.