President Muhammadu Buhari’s 59th Independence Day speech is a “mockery of democracy which further confirmed that the country is in wrong hands.”
This position was expressed on Tuesday by the leading opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the speech by the president was a mockery of democracy and insult on Nigerians as he failed to address major national issues.
The issues, the party said included those bordering on freedom, social justice, constitutional order, rule of law, credible elections, accountability, and many others.
The statement reads in part: “Buhari’s independence speech was completely unpresidential, lacking in patriotic stance and replete with manifest inconsistencies, contradictions, paradoxes and false performance claims.”
It added: “The party regretted that President Buhari had no forceful reassurances on the challenge of escalated insecurity under his watch.
“He had no clear-cut and operable blueprint to revamp our economy, which his administration wrecked in a period of four years, resulting in so much hardship and despondency that Nigerians now resort to suicide and slavery abroad as options.
“Our party notes that this address further exposes that the Buhari presidency is not interested in nation-building; that it is completely disconnected from the people and remains insensitive to the plights of Nigerians.”
The party stated further: “It is depressing that while other leaders motivate their citizens on a day like this, Buhari is presenting “uninspiring claims, propaganda and empty promises…
“The dearth in foreign direct investments and the inhuman treatments being meted out on our citizens in countries where we were once held in very high esteem, are some of the injuries our nation is suffering under the Buhari administration.”
