The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai to channel “his frustration” to President Muhammadu Buhari, who the main opposition party recalled, he “aptly described as an incompetent, old fashioned, corrupt, insensitive, parochial and tyrannical leader, who should not be voted into office, instead of seeking to incite violence in the country.”
In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan National Publicity Secretary and Director, Media & Publicity PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, the party also noted that el-Rufai’s threats that members of global democratic institutions working towards peaceful 2019 general elections in the country will return in body bags, has raised new questions regarding those behind the killing of expatriates and aid workers in various troubled parts of the country.
The statement added: “It is quite revealing that el-Rufai, who exposed Gen. Buhari in 2010 as ‘unelectable’ is now prancing about in defence of Buhari’s incompetent and anti-democratic administration, to the extent of issuing death threats to others, just to secure his place under a dictatorial administration.
“Governor el-Rufai had in 2010 described Gen. Buhari as ill-equipped for modern day governance. He berated Gen. Buhari of lacking the capacity to comprehend current trends, to the extent that he would think that a “blackberry was a fruit”.
In his reply to Gen. Buhari’s response to his earlier criticisms, el-Rufai stated: ‘Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because of his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.
‘In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new…..
‘Buhari was so high-handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting. That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defence, was used to jail journalists and attempt to cow the media as a whole. That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. These are facts of recent history. The story of counter-trade and import licensing, the cornerstone of Buhari’s stone-age economic strategy and those whose interests it served, is a tale for another day.’
However, the statement observed: “Today, President Buhari’s inept and colossally corrupt administration has wrecked our once robust economy, divided our nation, instituted executive high-handedness, violation of human rights, incessant breach of our constitution, disobedience of court order, assaults on our democratic institutions, clamp down of the media and dissenting voices, a scenario that has brought so much pain and anguish for Nigerians.
“Governor el-Rufai’s venom should, therefore, be directed towards President Buhari, who has brought so much pain to Nigerians and of course himself, for his own insensitivity to Nigerians and his support for anti-democratic tendencies of the Buhari administration.”
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