Tinubu’s New Year speech Empty, Deceitful – PDP

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Bola Tinubu’s New Year speech as empty and deceitful, saying he failed to address critical issues facing the country.

PDP in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba said the president insulted the sensibility of Nigerians by claiming that every decision and actions he took since the assumption of office were in the best interest of the country.

“On the contrary, all decisions and actions of the Tinubu presidency, including the approval of increase in the pump price of fuel from N167 to over N700 per litre, devaluation of the naira with the consequential high costs and hardship; skewing of the 2024 budget in favour of luxury appetite of the presidency and APC leaders without concrete policies to revive the economy and create jobs; the wasteful foreign trips with political cronies and failure to address the mindless killings across the nation, cannot be said to be in the interest of our country,” the party stated.

It expressed dismay that Tinubu failed to address issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing and productive sectors, as well as economic hardship in the country, in his New Year speech.

“More distressing is that President Tinubu had no words in his New Year address for the Christmas Eve genocidal massacre of over 200 Nigerians by terrorists in Plateau State, and the murder of over 5,000 citizens in Plateau and other states of the federation under his watch since May 29, 2023,” PDP noted.

The party condemned the anti-people policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government, adding that the president’s statement that he was aware of groans and pains, was a confirmation that his “administration is deliberately subjecting Nigerians to hardship as a way to suppress them to surrender to totalitarianism.”

It stated that Tinubu ought to have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologise to Nigerians and come out with steps to address the national challenges.

“What Nigerians demand of President Tinubu is to provide a comprehensive account of our nation’s earnings including the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, especially in the face of allegations that the earnings are being diverted to private pockets of APC leaders and their cronies,” PDP demanded.