Former Edo State Commissioner for Information, Kassim Afegbua, has released key yardsticks in Nigeria that makes the present administration a complete failure.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari has remained the most confused, incompetent, spineless, uncreative and demoralising.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in Edo State noted that the inability of the Buhari-led administration to build a state-of-the-art hospital that could answer the President’s medical needs and the needs of other Nigerians is a shame.
Afegbua also pointed out that in seven years, “our megawatts still revolve around 4,000 and 5,000 with so much so-called investment in the energy sector; and the president hops to London at the slightest opportunity to enjoy uninterrupted power supply, while leaving us in darkness.”
According to him, it is an unpardonable failure that not a single Refinery has been fixed or has any brand new one being built since 2015.
In a statement released on March 17 and made available to The Standard Gazette, the former Commissioner stated, “Life has become unbearable under a system that is manifestly asphyxiating, dehumanising and discomfitting. Nigeria and Nigerians have become internally displaced persons in their own country as a result of the blood-spilling activities of bandits and kidnappers. From the North to the South, we are seeing rivers of blood flowing with cake of crimson, as a result of general insecurity.”
“Nothing seems to be working in Nigeria except failure. Only last week, the Auditor-General made mind-boggling revelations about the millions of barrels of oil without any trace under a president and minister of petroleum whose adherents see as “mai-gaskiya”.
“How on earth can 107 million barrels of oil be declared missing under a government that sings about anti-corruption, yet not many heads have rolled, nobody has been sacked, nobody has been apprehended and no one is cooling off in jail!! Imagine such a whooping figure as if it is a piece of groundnut in a pupil’s pocket.”
“To make matters worse, the Finance Minister reportedly told the nation that the Federal Government was thinking of raising euro-bond cash to fund oil subsidy. What a cataclysmic catastrophy!. What impudence!
The APC and the Federal Government are two sides of a dysfunctional system that are unassailably confused, directionless and running amok. The president is confused, the APC is confused, the general psyche of the people has been utterly affected. Aside from dithering from one dysfunctional emanation to another, the confusion in the party is a manifestation of the confusion in the government.
As if to rub insult on our collective injuries, the President’s Spokesman told an already befuddled nation and a citizenry that is heavily overburdened that “heaven will not fall”, no matter the lamentations and difficulties we are experiencing. Imagine such infamy! How do you score such a wicked and sullen statement from a government that was voted for? For over a month now, fuel scarcity has remained a perpetual crisis across the country. Man-hours wastages are affecting the economy in a very debilitating manner.
Long queues of vehicles occasioned by the scarcity have become ugly sights across the country. Diesel has risen to over N700 per litre, kerosene which ought to be the cheapest for the average masses is now selling for N450 per litre. Electricity tariffs have risen astronomically, almost beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian. In all of these, an elected president abandoned his citizens to seek medical attention in London.
I have stated on several occasions in the last that a sick country cannot do well under a president that has health challenges; one of the reasons I am vehemently opposed to those old and tired politicians who now want to temporarily acquire the Aso Villa as their retirement home, and use the office to rejuvenate and repair themselves by contesting for presidency.
Rather than attend to our needs, they would be making all efforts to sustain their own wellbeing at the detriment and expense of Nigerians.
“They will force the country to work and walk at their own slow pace. Rather than be on the fast lane, the country will naturally be detained in a motion without movement scenario, because the supposed enabler is busy attending to his health needs. It is pathetic that in president Buhari’s 7 years in office, he could not build a world standard hospital to look after his OWN health needs and those of other citizens.
Just take a look at the curious contradictions; the president of the country is in London for medicals, the First Lady is reportedly in Dubai, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the ruling party was in Dubai for medicals. Both party and government are immersed in unpardonable voyageS of wellness while the rest of the country can go to hell.”
Kassim Afegbua did not mince words as he slammed the government as “not just wicked and inconsiderate, but also a cultivator of poverty, impoverishment, deprivation, hunger and starvation. He stated that the anti-corruption mantra of this administration has in fact, been rubbished by the corruption in it.
“This is a clarion call to all and sundry that we must collectively add our voices to make the 2023 election a referendum by Nigerians against the abnormalities of the ruling APC. We have been demobilised by suffering and economic dislocations, hence we must speak with one voice against a system and party that has crippled our sense of creativity and productivity.”
As hard working Nigerians, we must conscientize, mobilise, and synergize amongst ourselves to create the right nexus for citizen action against the ruling party in 2023.
“We must bail our country from the octopoidal grip of the present incompetent leadership and lead it on the path of constructive and collective engagement in the overall interest of our people. We cannot continue to cultivate failure, embellish incompetence, glamourise inertia, celebrate nepotism and decorate cronyism in a 21st century world, as our article of faith. Never again! 2023 beckons,” the statement concludes.
