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The Peoples Democratic Party has described President Bola Tinubu’s New Year speech as empty and uninspiring.
The opposition party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Monday, January 1, 2024, said the speech was a waste of Nigerians’ time because it did not address critical issues bedevilling the country.
The statement reads in part, “Nigerians were dismayed as President Tinubu employed rhetoric and failed to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing, and productive sectors; crushing 28% inflation rate, continuing plunge of the naira, alarming unemployment, excruciating poverty and economic hardship occasioned by the reckless, ill-advised and insensitive policies and programmes of his administration.”
He further described President Tinubu’s claim that every decision he has taken since he assumed office in May 2023 was in the interest of the country as an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians.
“On the contrary, all decisions and actions of the Tinubu Presidency including the approval of an increase in the pump price of fuel from N167 to over N700 per liter, devaluation of the naira with the consequential high costs and hardship; skewing of the 2024 budget in favour of luxury appetite of the Presidency and APC leaders without concrete policies to revive the economy and create jobs; the wasteful foreign trips with political cronies and failure to address the mindless killings across the nation cannot be said to be in the interest of our country,” Ologunagba said.
He said that the claim confirmed that his administration is allegedly subjecting Nigerians to hardship, adding that the President should have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologise to Nigerians instead.
“President Tinubu ought to have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologize to Nigerians and marshal out steps to address our national challenges, including those responsible for the exiting of multinational manufacturing companies and other businesses from our country.
“What Nigerians demand of President Tinubu is to provide a comprehensive account of our nation’s earnings including the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, especially in the face of allegations that the earnings are being diverted to private pockets of APC leaders and their cronies,” he said.
He also called on the National Assembly to step up and perform its constitutional role of oversight to hold the Executive Arm accountable as the custodian of the purse of the nation.