Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday charged the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to resign immediately and apologise to Nigerians over his unpardonable comment that the terrible state of roads in the nation was being exaggerated.
This was coming just as the
opposition party urged the Senate to assert its independence and refuse to allow the President Muhammadu Buhari-led executive to railroad it into passing the anti-people Value Added Tax (VAT) increase bill, which has been rejected by Nigerians.
The PDP described as unfortunate statement credited to Fashola, who ought to be “apologetic for the decrepit state of roads across the country since the last four years he has been minister.”
The party said the statement was “a violent assault on the sensibility of over 200 million Nigerians” and further demonstrated “the disdain with which the Buhari administration holds our citizens who lost their lives and many more who daily undergo mental and physical torture using our dilapidated roads.”
PDP added that the minister’s “comment must be premeditated, and reflects the official position of the Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, which has no regard for Nigerians and only thrives in propaganda and false claims to cover its failures in governance.”
According to the party, “Every Nigerian knows that most of the major roads across the country are in sorry state and that travelling on our roads has become traumatising and one of the highest life threatening experiences in our country since the last four years.
“The comment by the failed minister of works is therefore highly provocative and capable of invoking the anger of Nigerians, because it shows that either he has not been going through our roads and as such not in touch with reality or he has exposed himself as falsehearted official.
“Our party is however not surprised at such comment from the minister because the Buhari administration, in which he serves, thrives only in propaganda, blame game, excuses and false performance claims because it has nothing to offer.
“The minister’s reprehensible claim is therefore a clear pointer that Nigerians should not expect any intervention on roads under the Buhari administration.
“This is the same minister who boasted that any responsible government should fix power within six months, only for the Buhari administration, with him as minister supervising power, to turn around and wrecked the gains achieved by previous administrations.”
PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, told “Nigerians to note that such leadership failures characterised by reckless statements is always characteristic of governments that did not derive from the mandate of the people at the polls and therefore believe that it is not answerable to them.”
Meanwhile, PDP expressed concerns over the VAT increase bil, noting that the bill has been hurriedly passed through second reading in the Senate even when the details were not made available to lawmakers.
The PDP explained that “the failure to avail the details of the bill to the lawmakers confirms its toxicity to the polity,” charging the Senate leadership “to bear in mind that Nigerians have rejected the bill, which is designed by the Buhari Presidency to increase VAT from five per cent to excruciating 7.5 per cent not minding its attendant adverse economic effect on Nigerians.”
PDP said: “Such planned increase in VAT is insensitive, suppressive and if anything, will further impoverish Nigerians and worsen the prevailing agonising economic situation in the country.
“The National Assembly, as the true representatives of the people at the federal level, should therefore protect Nigerians by ensuring that such an anti-people policy does not receive a final legislative stamp.”
The oppositikn party urged the National Assembly to “task the Buhari Presidency to rather end its manifest profligacy and seek ways to galvanise the system for wealth creation instead of this suppressive resort to imposition of taxes on Nigerians.”
“Accordingly, the National Assembly should task President Buhari to account for and recover the over N14 trillion oil money established to have been stolen under his watch in the last four years instead of punishing Nigerians with more taxes,” the party alleged
PDP urged the Senate to resist the pressure from the Buhari Presidency to work against the people and “ensure that the bill does not go beyond the second reading stage.”
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