UN insurgency meeting: Presidency lied, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the presidency was economical with the truth for its failure to represent Nigeria at a high-level meeting of countries affected by insurgency at the 70th United Nations’ General Assembly.

Describing it as an insult to the country and that it amounted to a crass ineptitude on the part of the All Progressives Party (APC) led administration, the PDP said “It is disheartening to note that the same meeting the President Buhari-led delegation shunned actually yielded a fall out of $6.8 million announced by the United States as funding for regional aid efforts.”

Addressing Journalists, in Abuja on Monday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh maintained that the presidency lied because the said meeting, which focused on humanitarian crisis, was contained in the official brochure tagged, “High Level Event on the Lake Chad Basin,” stressing that “high level representation from the government of Nigeria” was equally scheduled to make contributions at the meeting.

Read also: Buhari can’t attend every meeting at UN -Presidency

“Further reports indicate that due to the importance of that meeting, it was broadcast on United Nations’ official online television and radio channels, while officials of world bodies have continued to register their disappointment in our country due to the incompetence of the APC-led government. Instead of admitting failure and apologizing to Nigerians, the Presidency sought to hoodwink the public by claiming that the meeting was not one of the official events for which the President and his delegation are in New York”, the PDP spokesman said.

The party lamented that while other affected Chad basin countries were fully represented and had fruitful discussions with officials of the world body, “the government of Nigeria, which has the biggest challenge of displaced persons, refused to attend such a meeting”.

Metuh, who titled his speech, “The Decline Of Democratic Ideals” also lampooned the President Buhari for calling Ministers noise makers, saying the comment has shown the mindset of the president that he would not attach any value or importance to them when they are eventually appoint.

He also maintained that the non- appointment of Ministers since about four months after assuming office was an indication that the president wants to run an authoritarian government.

His words: “From his hesitancy and comments, it is deducible that President Buhari never intended to appoint ministers but rather prefers to run a monocracy and evidently does not value or respect those he would nominate as ministers.

“Otherwise, how can anyone repackage the mindset of the President when he, in an interview with France 24 Television in France, stated categorically that his preference is to rule without a cabinet and denigrated ministers as ‘noise makers,’ and of no importance or value in the running of an administration?‎”

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