House of Reps Caucus slams Buhari, six-year administration

The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has given a fail mark to the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, considering all it has done in the last six years.

The damning statement comes as the Presidency listed over 60 areas in which it has achieved in the last six years, though analysts cite its failure on the security front as a big minus that casts a pall over its claims.

Thousands of Nigerians have died while many are held by terrorists, bandits, and other criminals in forests.

In a statement by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, the caucus cited the Federal Government’s failure to checkmate worsening insecurity and mass killing of citizens; mismanagement of our national economy, its intrinsic corruption, and unrelenting assault on our national diversity, as the hallmark of the administration’s failure on many counts.

Other failure points cited by the caucus are: nepotism in government appointments, disregard for rule law, relegation of constitutional order, exclusionist tendencies, and trade restrictions.

He said the principles of separation of powers; abuse of human rights, electoral malpractices, harassment of opposition and arrogant insensitivity to the sensibilities of the Nigerian people by the APC administration have occasioned instability, economic crisis and avoidable acrimony that are threatening the corporate existence as a country.

“Poor policies by the APC administration have stifled the economy and put the nation in dire strait with a disturbing 33.3 percent unemployment rate, a scary 18.12 percent inflation rate, over N32.9 trillion accumulated debt burden, a progressively devalued currency and collapsed infrastructure.”

The caucus says failure of the government to address escalated security challenges has crippled the agricultural sector and disorganized commercial activities leading to imminent food crisis with cost of food and other necessities of life skyrocketing beyond the reach of Nigerians.

“Nigeria, under the APC administration has now become the poverty capital of the world, ranking 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, with 22.95 food inflation rate and increasing morbidity and mortality rates.

“As representatives of the people, the minority caucus is worried that our nation is heading towards a failed state. We therefore urge President Muhammadu Buhari to buckle up and use the occasion of May 29 to address the failures of his administration by taking urgent steps to tackle insecurity, ensure respect for rule of law, end corruption in his government, adopt a more inclusive approach to governance and engage better hands to manage our economy.

The Minority Caucus, however, applauds some governors.

“These governors have displayed unmatched leadership competence in developing their states through economic empowerment of citizens and massive infrastructural investments in key sectors of agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation, water resources, industrialization, aviation, road infrastructure, security among others.

“Indeed, the performance of the governors elected on the platform of the PDP has further demonstrated that with the right type of leadership and ideological drive of a pan-Nigeria political party, such as the PDP, our nation will obviously come of the woods of misrule.

“We therefore call on Nigerians to remain focused and not lose sight of the potentials and promises our nation hold despite the challenges we face today.”