PDP, APC differ on FG’s policy thrusts

In from Enite Banjamin …

The two main political parties in the country, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) again on Sunday traded words over the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and its style of governance.

National publicity secretary of the PDP at a media briefing in Abuja urged the government to settle down and face the business of governance and the fight against insurgency with every sense of seriousness, especially given Buhari’s promise in his April 2, 2015 CNN interview to end the scourge two months after his inauguration.

He said “What we continue to receive as a nation have been embarrassing disagreements, accusations and counter-accusations, blames and denials on very important issues due to lack of tact and skill in the management of state matters by the APC-led administration”.

Metuh also said that since the President had insisted on running his government as a sole administrator, making important decisions on national affairs without recourse to relevant statutory arms and organs of government, the PDP was being compelled to demand that the administration publish its expenses since assumption of office in May, in keeping with its much harped stance on transparency.

Metuh also alleged that his party was in possession of information that the Presidency acting alone, has gone into discussions with the World Bank for a loan of $2.1 bn for purposes unknown to Nigerians.

He asked, “What is the loan for? What are the terms and who are those working the papers? Who are the people to decide on how the money will be spent? Is it true that the $2.1bn loan is meant to pay back huge contributions for the APC Presidential campaign expenses?

Read also: PDP berates APC over Buhari’s excuses

“If truly this government is transparent, it should come out clear on this loan as well as publicise details of its expenditure in the last two months.”

Reacting, his counterpart in the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the PDP would be unable to provide any worthwhile opposition to the Federal Government if its spokesman continued to issue empty statements.

According to him ’Today’s statement is the most tortuous yet by the PDP and, honestly, sounds more like a compendium of beer parlour gossips and side talks than a serious criticism of a sitting government.’

Mohammed in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday stated, that ‘‘to be in opposition does not mean you have to constitute yourself to a nuisance by rushing to the press with all sorts of hot air statements. It is the quality, rather than the frequency, of your interventions that makes you relevant as an opposition in a democracy.’’

He also said, that the PDP is “too blind with hatred” to notice President Muhammadu Buhari’s hard work with solving the country’s numerous problems.

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