Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, has come under fire from the main opposition parties for his New Year speech, which they said was full of empty promises, and false claims, and lacked empathy for the citizens.
According to a report by Vanguard, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did not respond to the criticisms, as efforts to reach its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, were unsuccessful.
A Harvest of Deceit and Hypocrisy
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the largest opposition party, said Tinubu’s speech was unpresidential, uninspiring, and amounted to a waste of valuable time. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said Nigerians were dismayed by the president’s rhetoric and his failure to address the critical issues plaguing the nation.
Ologunagba said the president ignored the issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing, and productive sectors, crushing inflation, plunging naira, alarming unemployment, excruciating poverty, and economic hardship caused by his administration’s policies and programs.
He also said the president failed to address the issue of corruption, incompetence, insensitivity, and profligacy in his administration, which have put the nation in a dire situation.
“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 5000 citizens in Plateau and other states of the federation under his watch since May 29, 2023. What manner of a President!” Ologunagba said.
He described Tinubu’s assertion that everything he had done in office was in the best interest of the country as “an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians”.
A Hollow Speech That Lacked Empathy
The Labour Party (LP), another opposition party, also lambasted Tinubu’s speech as “appalling and hollow”. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said the speech showed the high level of hypocrisy, deceit, and lack of empathy that characterized the APC administration.
Ifoh said it was depressing that the president and his handlers did not include a word of comfort for the families of over 200 people killed by terrorists during the Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau State.
He said the president’s helplessness in the face of his glaring failure to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, the collapse of the manufacturing and productive sectors, inflation, and the naira exchange rate was evident in his speech.
Ifoh stated that the president’s decisions and actions, such as the increase in the pump price of fuel, the devaluation of the naira, the skewing of the 2024 budget in favor of the luxury appetite of the presidency and APC leaders, the wasteful foreign trips, and the failure to address the mindless killings across the nation, were not in the interest of the nation.
He also accused the president of undermining the constitution and institutions of democracy, such as the judiciary, the National Assembly, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“While we call for prayers for our nation in this critical point of our history, we will continue to call on the National Assembly to look beyond party lines and ensure that the spirit and the letter of our constitution are upheld at all times,” Ifoh said.
Despite the harsh criticisms from the opposition parties, some Nigerians still expressed hope that the president would deliver on his promises and improve the situation of the country in the new year.
A civil servant, who identified himself as Musa, said he believed the president was sincere in his speech and that he had the best interest of the country at heart.
“I think the president is trying his best to solve the problems we are facing. He has done some good things, like the social investment programs, the railway projects, and the fight against corruption. I hope he will do more in 2024 and make life better for us,” he said.
