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| Buhari talks self into trouble with "old age limitation" statememnt: Resign Now - PDP urges, Shut up! APC responds |
A group within Nigeria’s opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, has asked General Muhammadu Buhari to resign since he said there is a limit to what he can do at age 72.
“How I wish I became Head of State when I was a governor, just a few years as a young man. Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do,” Mr Buhari said while addressing Nigerians in South Africa on Tuesday.
The group, in a statement signed by its head, Tunde Lawal, said the APC and President Buhari are gang of hypocrites and liars.
“The PDP is again vindicated by this confession from President Muhammadu Buhari and many more that are yet to come.
“Nigerians will recall that during the presidential campaigns, the PDP and other well meaning Nigerians complained on the choice of sponsoring Pa Muhammadu Buhari as Presidential Candidate of APC and the effect it will have on the country when it comes to managing the affairs of a multi dimensional nation like Nigeria, but, the APC and its leaders said that age is just a number”.
“It’s barely three weeks into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and his age is already telling on him, so, what will happen to Nigeria in the remaining 1,440 days of this government. It’s better to find a black goat in the day time rather than looking for it in the night and this is why we are asking President Buhari to resign now because Nigerians will not entertain further excuses of why the APC cannot deliver on their campaign promises,” the group said.
The group cited another mistake of the President – when he referred to the President of Germany as President of West Germany, and blamed it on the President’s age.
“Nigerians saw this all along during the campaigns but could not resist the broom stick voodoo that the APC used to hypnotize the people. Nigerians will also recall that this same Pa. Buhari could not remember the complete name of His Vice Presidential Candidate.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as a product of poor thinking and deliberate mischief the statement credited to the
so-called PDP Media Watchdog asking President Muhammadu Buhari to resign because of his comments over his age.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if the authors of the statement had understood simple English, taken the pains to engage in deep thinking and contextualized the comments, they would not have rushed to the press to ask the President to resign.
”What President Buhari was saying, which was lost on those who issued that jejune statement, is that only his love and passion for the country could have made him, at his age, to come out of retirement to seek the office of President, over 30 years after he presided over the affairs of the country.
”For 16 years, Nigerians gave the PDP the benefit of the doubt to move the country forward, but instead, the party put Nigeria in reverse gear at a high speed, spinning it towards a doomsday that was only averted when Nigerians showed the PDP the red card. This is what necessitated President Buhari to continuously seek the country’s highest political office, so he can help put the country on a forward march again. Nothing else matters, not for him the excitement of an office he previously held and the quest for personal accomplishment.
If the country had been well managed, President Buhari will not at 72 be crisscrossing the whole world seeking solution to Nigeria’s problems, it said.
APC said within three weeks of his inauguration, President Buhari has succeeded in returning Nigeria to the comity of nations, to such an extent that world leaders are now so eager to engage him on how to assist his country in key areas, including security and the fight against corruption.
”Within three weeks of President Buhari’s inauguration, he had done what the PDP government could not do in six years: Invigorate the fight against Boko Haram by rallying a regional and global front against the terror group. Today, the US has pledged to give $5 million
for the fight against Boko Haram, in addition to other materialsupport. This is apart from the support that has been pledged by the
G-7 for Nigeria’s efforts to quell the insurgency.
”Thanks to President Buhari’s shuttle diplomacy, the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) that the PDP government could not bring together for all of six years is ready to deploy next month, while the President has ordered the release of $21 million to facilitate the establishment of the headquarters of the force in N’Djamena, Chad.
”Since assuming office about three weeks ago, President Buhari has visited Chad, Niger, Germany and South Africa, winning support and friends for Nigeria all over again and returning the country to the comity of respected nations. Those who were put off by the PDP government’s resort to politicizing the fight against Boko Haram – even as the insurgents grew stronger – are now joining President Buhari to battle the terrorists. In no distant future, the results of his tireless efforts will begin to show.
”On the domestic front, President Buhari has been handling pressing issues far away from the klieg light, and his efforts to assembly a first class team to implement his change mantra, which he is personally driving, are continuing apace. We in the APC, and we are sure most unbiased Nigerians, are very proud of President Buhari and the vigour he has shown in governance, the kind of vigour we did not see in the immediate past administration that was presided over by a far younger man,” the party said.
It said only anarchists and non-democrats will ask a President who has not spent one month in office to resign, adding: ”It rankles when those making these calls are from the ranks of the party that failed to avail itself creditably in 16 years.”
APC said it has deliberately refused to join issues with the PDP, which has been issuing a series of insipid press statements that showed clearly that the party is not ready to provide a robust opposition to the APC-led federal government
”For the umpteenth time, we say that the PDP and its satellite bodies must realize that in order to be relevant, credible and to make the necessary impact, they must pick on real issues and articulate them intelligently, rather than latching on to trite matters. This very amateurish display won’t get them anywhere,” the party said.
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