The Presidency says the position of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum as depicted in its communiqué after their meeting over the weekend further shows why neither the party nor its representatives should be entrusted with the leadership of the nation.
In a statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, particularly lambasted the PDP governors for allegedly bemoaning the decision by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation not to make contributions to the Federation Account, saying the governors are crying blue murder because the decision hurts their access to free money to feed their profligacy.
Shehu said: “NNPC is a trustee for the nation – and this means it must manage its finances with prudence and for the long-term to safeguard the financial support it bestows on our country.
“What the governors are asking of NNPC is to ‘break the bank’ for their own profligate political ends.”
He also faulted the PDP governors’ call to the Central Bank of Nigeria to raise the value of the naira, noting that while this would “damage exports – including oil revenues on which NNPC depends – as well as damage small businesses and employment,” it would benefit “those spending on luxuries from abroad” which he said it “no doubt, the leading desire of a typical PDP governor.”
Shehu noted further: “When the governors claim a lack of federal institutions’ money pouring into their states’ coffers is an affront to democracy, constitutionalism, and federalism, they fail to mention the ugliest trend against the integrity of Nigeria comes by own hands with their refusal to support the Federal Government’s earnest desire to reinstate the local government as the third tier and finding a lasting solution to farmer-herder conflicts costing the nation lives and livestock.
“This initiative brings rights and support for generations of all ages to bring solutions to challenges that different communities of our country have faced; but the PDP governors reject it – denying all Nigerians their constitutional right to live and work in any state of the Federation – preferring to appeal to ethnic division and hatred rather than support the first practical solution offered since independence.”
On the governors’ stand regarding the federal government’s suspension of Twitter, Shehu said the PDP governors are pained by the suspension because it curtails their ability to use the platform to spread fake news and invented stories to the detriment of community and good-neighbourliness between the peoples of Nigeria.
He said it was sad that the PDP governors propose no solutions to any of the nation’s challenges in the face of COVID and global economic downturn, merely “grasp for more money and mourn their lack of access to social media to spread falsehoods and hate.”