PDP knocks Buhari over comment on Umahi’s defection to APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the comment of President Muhammadu Buhari on the defection of Dave Umahi, Ebonyi State governor, to the All Progressive Congress (APC) amounts to dereliction of duty and political scavenging.

The opposition party stated this in reaction to the assertion of Mr Buhari that Umahi’s defection was a bold move based on principles, adding that with politicians like the Ebonyi governor, the future for the country’s democracy will be brighter than it is.

But in its response, the PDP advised the president’s handlers to discontinue making their principal a butt of joke in the public space. Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the opposition party said the speed at which the Nigerian leader reacted to the defection shows he has abandoned governance for political enterprise of individuals.

“The development further exposes Mr. President’s incompetence and poor understanding of the tenets of leadership, statesmanship and expectations of his office,” Mr Ologbondiyan said in a Thursday statement.

“The PDP holds as appalling that the Buhari Presidency is showing more urgency in commenting on political adventures rather than expressing concern on the reported kidnapping of 12 senior police officers by bandits.

“The party observed that if President Buhari had used the same urgency he displayed in commenting on Governor Umahi’s defection to address the issue of police brutality, the crisis situation, death, arson, destruction of public and private property witnessed in the aftermath of the endSARS protest would have been averted.

“Indeed, if Mr. President had shown similar urgency towards the demand for the rejigging of our national security architecture, we would have averted the escalated insurgency, kidnapping and bloodletting ravaging our country today.

“In the same vein, if President Buhari had used the same urgency to respond to the call to reorganize his economic team, end the corruption in his government as well as address the frightening upsurge in unemployment under his watch, our nation would not be in this sorry state as the poverty capital of the world.

“President Buhari has indeed shown that he has no time for governance; completely out of sync with the social and political reality in our country and disconnected from the expectations of Nigerians on his office, particularly at this trying time.

“Our party urges President Buhari to wake up and show more seriousness to the duties of his office instead of engaging in personal political enterprise of individuals.

“The PDP therefore counsels President Buhari’s handlers to stop ridiculing his office by making him a butt of joke in the public space,” the statement added.