The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors, yesterday, berated the Presidency over its response to the opposition governor’s recent communique on the state of the nation.
The Forum, in a statement by its Director General, CID Maduabum, described the response of the Presidency through Garba Shehu as infantile.
The PDP governors noted that their March 23 communique merely stated the facts as it relate to the existential threat confronting the country under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.
“The PDP Governors communiqué made a comparative sketch of Nigeria of 2015 under PDP and Nigeria of 2022 under APC. The communiqué reeled out the fact that in almost all sectors, things have gotten worse by over 1000%.
“This is reflected in prices of basic foodstuffs, unemployment rate, electricity prices, kerosene, diesel, fuel, aviation fuel and air ticket prices which have all gone through the roof. It reeled out figures on poverty, inflation, exchange rate, debt accumulation and corruption.
“Indeed, all aspects of life in Nigeria are being systematically destroyed by the APC administration. Life has become short, brutish and valueless in Buhari’s Nigeria as insecurity ravages the land. But this is not the problem of Garba Shehu, who is enveloped in the Presidential Villa, totally oblivious of the suffering and agony Nigerians are facing.
“The most disturbing aspect of misrule of the APC as chronicled in the communiqué is the petroleum sector.The stealing of Nigeria’s crude oil and the connivance of NNPC in shortchanging other tiers of government, namely, States and Local Governments is simply mind bogging, if not outright criminal. Nigeria now produces 1.1million barrels of crude oil per day. It has capacity to produce 2.5 million per day. It cannot even meet its OPEC quota of 1.8 million per day. NNPC is a law unto itself.
“Nobody can call them to order to desist from the part of lawlessness and unconstitutional acts it has chosen to dwell in. Of course, President Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Under his watch, the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is deteriorating. In an accountable government, he should have resigned his position as Minister of Petroleum, as a result of the cataclysmic failures in the sector.
“It is even shocking that Garba Shehu admits that funds from NNPC are now directly used to fund social and health programmes, road construction etc, in an unconstitutional overreach. NNPC can spend the Federal Government’s share of the Federation Account as it pleases. It cannot spend money belonging to other tiers of government without their approval. NNPC cheats States and Local Governments. NNPC recklessly squanders money belonging to other tiers of government and has the audacity and impudence to pay Zero amount of money into the Federation Account.
“Garba Shehu conveniently ignored the facts in the PDP Governors Communique that exposed the deduction of N788 billion for NNPC’s own chosen projects without recourse to the Federation Account; the deduction of N8.3 billion monthly for rehabilitation of refineries in Nigeria that do not work; the scandal called petroleum subsidy that gulps trillions of naira yearly without accountability and value for money.
