Buhari’s speech in London empty, laughable, says group

• Opposition party berates PDP’s ‘politics of duplicity’

A GROUP, Good Governance Initiative (GGI), has described as empty and laughable the speeches made last week by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London.

  In a statement issued in Lagos Sunday, the group said though it was clear that the retired general was reluctantly reading a script prepared for him by those who see him as a tool to actualise their selfish political goal, the delivery was fraught with a deluge of irregularities and fallacious promises that are unrealisable. 

  The group wondered why the APC presidential candidate and his stalwarts had to travel all the way to London for the purpose when the Nigerian’s equivalence of Chatham House, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island, Lagos, lay fallow. 

  Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has said the return of fuel queues at filling stations is a confirmation that the policies of the Jonathan administration are founded on deceit and insincerity.

  In a statement issued in Abuja at the weekend by Director of Media and Publicity of APCPCO, Malam Garba Shehu, the campaign organisation said that the recent fuel price reductions announced by the Federal Government was borne out of political expediency, rather than compassion, because the ruling party is desperate to cling to power at all cost.  

  The statement said all the emergency projects and palliatives being bandied about by the Jonathan government are intended to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians.

  The Director, Media and Publicity of GGI, Dr. Sunny Osa, specifically noted that apart from the fact that the retired general was bereft of ideas pertaining to the nation’s macro-economic indices and could not therefore give a categorical answer as to how he would turn around the fortunes of the country, he lost control of himself when he was asked a question about his hard stand on the introduction of Sharia law in the whole country if he was voted in.   

  According to Osa: ”Why Chatham House to deliver his speech and not NIIA if they are not deceitful? It was a waste of resources, an effort in the wrong direction tantamount to winking in the dark.”

  According to Shehu, a PDP administration that greeted Nigerians with an unprecedented fuel price increase of N140 per litre in January 2012 has lost the basis to be trusted any further by Nigerians, saying that the APC presidential campaign was not surprised by the sudden return of fuel queues at filling stations in Abuja and other major cities.

  He said the return of fuel queues, which are causing undue hardships for passengers, motorists and other Nigerians, has made nonsense of the recent Federal Government’s announced reductions in fuel prices.   

  Shehu added that the PDP’s artificial show of compassion towards Nigerians in the face of imminent electoral debacle should not fool anyone.

  The APCPCO explained that a ruling party that once boasted of its invincibility is now confronted with the reality of imminent defeat, which it said, has shattered the false sense of security which until recently, deluded the ruling party into ridiculous over-confidence.

  According to the statement, all the current PDP emergency reliefs or projects for Nigerians are borne out of the fear of defeat rather than genuine compassion for the Nigerian people.

  Describing the Jonathan government as “notoriously unreliable,” the APCPCO said any policies founded on deceits would collapse and expose those who thrive on duplicity.

  Shehu said that the return of fuel queues was like an accident waiting to happen because the recent reductions in petroleum product prices by the Jonathan PDP administration were not based on sincerity.

  Continuing, Osa said: “If for anything, Buhari and his cohorts’ appearance in Chatham House was a spiteful and a calculated move aimed at currying sympathy where there is none.” 

He was reading a script prepared for him by those who want to use him to actualise their selfish political agenda. What was the electoral value of the Chatham speech? Who do they wish to impress?  Buhari could not hide his ill-feelings for those he has perceived as enemies who he aims to vent his wrath on should he secure his presidential ambition. Nigerians should ask themselves why he is contesting for the fourth time having been rejected thrice by the same Nigerians.  His unco-ordinated and laughable speeches obviously, hold no water.”  

  Osa, therefore, urged Nigerians both within and in the Diaspora to be vigilant, discerning and disregard the smokescreen appearance of Buhari and his agents of economic destabilisation and vote them out during the forthcoming March 28 general elections.