Reactions trailing the PDP convention has seen opposition party members urging the party to retire to their beds and accept defeat already.
In separate statements, The APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, blamed the PDP for the uncensored looting experienced in their regime.
Okechukwu asked former President Goodluck Jonathan to apologise to Nigerians after he admitted his administration did not “plug the loopholes in the fight against corruption.”
Jonathan had said at the convention albeit angrily that “we did well” at the Peoples Democratic Party’s Non-elective Convention held in Abuja.
“My own sincere assessment is that our dear ex-president rather than plugged loopholes of corruption, opened it wide. He should apologize to Nigerians whom he betrayed for being less than transparent.
“I was outraged when I heard him proclaim that the PDP will return to power in 2019 because of the hunger and poverty ravaging the country.”
He said the Jonathan era was froth with lack of planning, “abject poverty, food insecurity and deficit infrastructure” as a result of wanton “squandering” of public funds.
“He (Jonathan) propelled his preferred Minister, Mrs Deziani Alison Madueke and other cronies to loot dry our dear countrymen.
“Public squandering”
“Example, revelations are showing how $80 million was used by Mrs Madueke’s ally to purchase a luxury yacht, money which could have been utilized to build the best hospital in Yenogoa.
“Or is he not reminding us of the humongous foreign exchange used in buying choice estates locally and abroad?
“In sum, the biggest headache of Buhari administration is the huge local and foreign debt amassed by the PDP’s 16 years misrule. On bail-out fund and Paris Fund refund, Buhari has spent over N1 trillion on salary and pension arrears. He has also paid over $7 billion on obligations to International Oil Companies (IOC) with the little he got.”
Okechukwu added that had the Jonathan government executed the award of $23 billion contracts for the construction of three Greenfield refineries promised to be sited in Bayelsa, Kogi and Lagos, it would have saved Nigeria over $200 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products till date.
The VON DG said that with huge oil revenue under his regime, Jonathan “stood a good chance of fixing the Niger Delta, but failed woefully”, advising him to keep quiet, especially now that the hunger and poverty he allegedly imposed “are getting too harsh”.
“I regret demonstrating on Abuja streets in 2010, for him to be made an executive president, with others as a member of the defunct Save Nigeria Group,” he lamented.
Restructuring not in their plan
Meanwhile, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said the PDP would have a woeful outing come 2019.
“Nigerians have concluded that the status quo is not working for them and they want some structural changes that would enhance effective governance; but the PDP has shown it does not believe in restructuring. It is not in their manifesto.
“PDP never believes in restructuring, for that alone Nigerians won’t vote for them come 2019. They held two national conferences and it was never on their plans. It is not in their manifesto and it cannot be in their plans towards 2019,” he stated.
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