Balarabe Musa: PC rode to power on false promises

By Abdullahi M. Gulloma

Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed governors of the 36 states of the federation to ensure that salaries and entitlements of workers are paid before Christmas.

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, who disclosed this yesterday to State House correspondents  care of

By AbdulRaheem Aodu, Kaduna and Bode Olagoke, Abuja

 

A former Governor of old Kaduna state, and National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, has said  the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) rode to power on the back of empty and false promises.

Musa added that the ruling party is riddled with internal crisis and has nothing to offer Nigerians after almost three years of governance.

He also claimed none of the promises made by APC before coming to power in 2015, had been fulfilled.

Rather, he said Nigerians have only seen mass impoverishment, frustrations and hardship.

Addressing the 54th meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, Musa said following the Federal High Court ruling in December 2015, which affirmed PRP as a registered political party in Nigeria, the party was set to re-strategise by reviewing its activities, embarking on massive membership drive across the nation and holding its convention in the first quarter of 2018.

The former governor said since 2015 when the APC came to power, economy had remained comatose, unemployment assumed critical proportion and state of national emergency, insecurity among other issues had become life threatening and worrisome.

He said his party would remedy the situation if it comes to power come 2019.

“Our nation today remains in a very sorry state despite all the lofty promises and flowery speeches made by the ruling government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the inception of the administration in 2015.

“The economy remains comatose, and in some sectors, particularly in industry and commerce, it is even getting worse. Monetary and fiscal management has continued to lack coherence and consistency, or even predictability and strategic planning.

“Unemployment, particularly amongst the youth, who constitute the bulk of our population, has assumed critical proportions and is now, for all practical purposes, a national emergency, yet, this APC administration, which rode to power on the back of false promises to this generation of hapless young men and women, seems to have no answers to this ticking time bomb beyond slogans such as N-Power.

“Instead of creating jobs, the administration is busy cutting existing ones in the name of ‘rightsizing’ or ‘downsizing’. This government, both at the centre and in the states that it controls, has proved that it has little or nothing else to provide Nigerians other than further mass impoverishment, frustration and hardships.

“If we turn to the security front, the same sad picture confronts us. Perhaps, President Muhammadu Buhari’s greatest appeal for many in 2015 was the belief that he was capable of dealing a death blow to the insurgency, particularly as manifested by Boko Haram.

“In these almost three years that the APC has been in power, the reality has been otherwise. Yes, the Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa forest may have been wiped out, but the security menace that the group poses continues to manifest, with suicide bombs exploding almost on a weekly basis, particularly in the North eastern parts of the country.

“But apart from the Boko Haram insurgency, others have emerged in different parts of the country. Recently, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) unleashed mayhem in the South-east. Similarly, the militants in the Niger Delta are yet to sheath their swords.

“And even more ominous is the threat to public safety and the security of lives and property posed by the marauding gangs of cattle rustlers, killer herdsmen and armed kidnappers. Where is the security promised Nigerians by this APC administration? In so far as the political environment is concerned, again the story is a sad one. Lacking any internal cohesion within itself, the APC administration has only spawned and promoted institutional political decay in the country.

“In the name of an anti-corruption campaign, the government has been consistently assaulting due process and the rule of law. Court orders are flagrantly disobeyed by the very institutions that should enforce them.

“Basic democratic rights are being cynically abused. While talking glibly about fighting corruption, the government shamelessly looks askance where corruption is exposed within its own very ranks, closets and cocoons.”

Musa described the state of the nation as sad, saying things do not have to be so sad given the natural and human endowments of the country.

He, however, appealed to the masses to endure the challenges, assuring  that PRP will be their last hope if voted into power to build a strong political, social and economic platform for the country.

 

APC

Several calls put through by one of our correspondents to the APC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, were unanswered.

Similarly, a terse text message asking the APC publicity scribe to respond to issues raised by the PRP leader was also not replied as at 10.00 pm when we rested the paper.

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