- Says president treating citizens as conquered people
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) of holding Nigerians hostage.
The opposition party said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
PDP had on Wednesday claimed that the escalating insecurity, rising political uncertainties, biting economic hardship as well as prevailing tension in the country were indications that the nation was collapsing under the current leadership.
The party said it was deeply worried that the nation, which was a prosperity hub and a reference point for democracy, personal freedom and good governance, now has all the trappings of a failed state.
The statement said: “The national leadership of the party rose from a crucial meeting on Wednesday noting that the red flag has become urgent following the manifest total loss of faith by Nigerians, across the board, in the ability of the Buhari Presidency to provide a democratic leadership that can engender a peaceful and secure nation."
According to the major opposition party in Nigeria, Buhari is holding Nigerians and the country captive.
"It is clear that the APC and the Buhari Presidency have held Nigerians hostage," PDP asserted. "Nigerians are now being treated like a conquered people. They can no longer freely exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights; executive high-handedness has become a state policy just as the APC government, burdened by challenges of illegitimacy, has lost direction and only thriving in vindictiveness."
The party went further to say: “The PDP notes that due to the prevailing anti-democratic proclivities of the Buhari Presidency, our once cohesive and economically thriving nation has come under distress on all fronts; never in the history of our nation has our fault lines become so visible; uncertainty now envelopes our nation; citizens are nervous and agitated as ominous hopelessness sets in.
“Our party has also noticed that since the defence of the APC and President Buhari collapsed at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, the APC and its government have taken to harassment and repression of Nigerians by surreptitiously suspending constitutional provisions of freedom of speech and association in our country.
“On the economic front, President Buhari has ruined our economy and led our nation to become the world’s capital of poverty, while condoning the humongous corruption that has become the hallmark of his failed administration."
It claimed that President Buhari’s anti-development policies, the corruption in his government as well as his failure to provide security had scared away foreign investors.
“Only recently, the United Nations declared that 43 per cent of our nation’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has taken flights to other countries. Unemployment has gone out of proportion and there is no hope in sight.
“Our worry is that the prevailing situation of hopelessness under President Buhari and the APC is threatening our national cohesion and corporate existence as a nation,” PDP stated.