The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the allegations by the Presidency that certain Nigerians, particularly the elites, were waging a smear campaign against President Muhammadu Buhari, has further confirmed that the Buhari administration was being haunted by the shadows of its own failures.
The opposition party also counseled Buhari to stop his new-found pleading with Nigerians to award him an unmerited pass mark.
In a press statement on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan frown that such plea in the face of the manifest failures of his administration amounts to an assault on the sensibilities of Nigerians and an attempt to corrupt the records.
Ologbondiyan said it was clear that the Buhari-led administration was plagued by all-round failure in governance, adding that the president would not be begging Nigerians to award him a pass mark.
He said Buhari’s approval rating had fallen so low that even members of his party had abandoned him to seek for direction and leadership elsewhere, stressing that the situation was so bad that barely two years into his four years and final tenure, leaders of his party were already searching frantically for his replacement.
The national publicity secretary, however, warned that the allegation should not be a ploy for a renewed clampdown on the media and dissenting voices, particularly those now arising among well-meaning APC leaders, who are completely disenchanted by the incompetence and corruption inherent in the party.
“It is however absurd that President Buhari is still pleading for an undeserved pass mark when his administration has plunged our nation into the worst economic crisis, wrecked our productive sectors, borrowed from all corners of the world, stagnated our infrastructure, elevated corruption, allowed APC leaders to loot and stash away over N15trillion from our national coffers, while leaving bandits, terrorists, kidnappers to continue to ravage our nation.
“If the Buhari-led APC administration had done well, will the APC be going about orchestrating a membership revalidation and begging people to award it fictitious pass marks?
“President Buhari’s approval rating has fallen so low that even members of his party, the APC, have abandoned him to seek for direction and leadership elsewhere.
“The situation is so bad that barely two years into his four years and final tenure, leaders of his party, the APC, are already searching frantically for his replacement with some of them already commencing campaign activities.
“It is rather appalling that instead of facing reality, the Buhari Presidency is threatening Nigerians and overheating the polity will allegations of plots to wage a “smear campaign” against President Buhari in unnamed online newspapers.
“Such allegation is only symptomatic of a failed administration that is looking for who to blame for its woes. This is more so as any fair appraisal of the Buhari-led APC will only present a litany of failures and woes
“We however hope that this allegation is not a ploy for a renewed clampdown on the media and dissenting voices, particularly those now arising among well-meaning APC leaders, who are completely disenchanted by the incompetence and corruption inherent in their party and its administration.
“In any case, President Buhari and his APC should know that Nigerians have moved on and cannot be swayed again by false performance claims and unfounded propaganda,” Ologbondiyan lamented.
The presidency recently claimed that there would be campaign to portray “the president as pandering to ethnic and other primordial tendencies, contrary to his pledge to belong to all Nigerians.”
