Budget Presentation: Apologise to Nigerians over Falsehood, PDP Tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation has demanded President Muhammadu Buhari’s immediate apology to Nigerians following what it called the deliberate reliance on falsehood by the president in his budget presentation at the National Assembly.

The Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement Saturday, said that the president in his desperate plot to nudge up a trajectory of dismal performance, has resorted to falsification of achievements thereby violating his oath of office; the oath of allegiance to the people of Nigeria and corrupted the country’s national performance indices.

He said that the fact-checks showed that most of the projects which Mr. President claimed to have been completed do not have the littlest attention of his administration if they exist at all.

According to him, “Nigerians and the international community were shocked as fact-checks reveal that a large part of the claims made by Mr. President, particularly on projects he claimed to have completed, were outright falsehood, apparently designed by the Buhari Presidency to mislead the nation and the world.”

Ologbondiyan added that of particular reference is Buhari’s claim that he has completed the Ugwashi-Uku Dam in Delta State; a claim which casts a long shadow on his assertions, as the project has been abandoned since 2015.

He said: “In fact, the Dam, which President Buhari barefacedly said that he has completed, is overgrown with weeds, while the road leading to the complex has collapsed.

“The scenario is mostly the same in other capital projects, particularly those in remote parts of the country, which perhaps, our dear President thought Nigerians will not fact-check on.

“This elevation of lies to a standard practice of governance is embarrassing and the PPCO completely condemns it.”

Ologbondiyan noted that while PDP does not want to call Mr. President a liar, “We urge him, in his words, to tell Nigerians what he will call a person who claims to have done what he did not do, particularly, given his perception by a minority few as Mr. Integrity.”

He added that leaders over the world are expected to be truthful in their dealings, but this is no longer the case as it concerns Nigeria.

The main opposition party stressed that since fact-checks exposed the myriads of false claims in Mr. President’s budget speech, the Presidency has not offered any form of explanation. This goes to show that the claims were deliberate and intended to mislead.

It therefore urged Buhari to apologise to Nigerians as well as get his handlers to turn a new leaf and save his reputation from further nose-diving within the few months he has in office as the President of Nigeria.