COVID-19. Plea to Govs: “Accept Failure” – PDP Mocks Buhari…Charges States, Private Sector to Brace up For Solutions

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has upbraided the Buhari Presidency

for seeking to transfer the brunt of its failures to articulate and

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coordinate an effective national response on COVID-19 pandemic on state

governors, describing such as unpardonable manifestation of leadership

failure.

The party said Buhari Presidency’s decision to run to state governors

for solution after it had badly muddled up the process, leading to

confusion across the country and consequential spike in infection and

fatality rates, is rather coming very late in the day.

Nigerians can recall how our party and other well-meaning Nigerians

repeatedly counseled the Buhari Presidency to involve state governors,

the private sector and critical stakeholders for an effective

multisectoral and multilayered approach, to no avail.

The Buhari Presidency rebuffed wise counsels and settled for a parochial

response marred by corruption, nepotism, incompetence and narrow-minded

politics, only to now turn to seek to transfer the brunt of its colossal

failure to state governors.

The PDP described the announcement by the National Coordinator of the

failed Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, that

state governments should now start taking ownership of the response, as

an acceptance of failure by President Buhari, who failed to lead from

the front but abdicated the task to incompetent and narrow-minded

officials.

The PDP noted that the poor handling of the COVID-19 response has

further highlighted the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal

Government’s lack of capacity to manage important national issues.

Our party invites Nigerians to note that the three states, where the

Buhari-led Federal Government took up the management of the COVID-19

pandemic, namely; Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states, had recorded very high

statistics in infection and fatality rates compared to states where it

was not involved.

This shows that had President Buhari involved the states and allowed for

a multilayered, people-based approach in the distribution of

palliatives, development of therapeutics and implementation of

protocols, the situation would have been better handled.

Now that the Buhari Presidency has come to its wits end, our party urges

governors elected on the platform of the PDP to assist their colleagues

in the APC with information, strategies and expertise, for effective

national response for the pandemic.

Furthermore, the PDP urges Mr. President and his PTF to do the nation a

favour by taking accommodation in the backseat and allowing competent

hands to manage the situation.

Our party urges the state governors to brace up to the occasion and

rally the private sector for homegrown solutions, which the APC-led

Federal Government had failed to achieve due to sheer incompetence and

corruption.

The PDP therefore charges the Buhari Presidency to immediately give

detailed account of all funds and other resources it claimed to have

spent, particularly on palliatives; a scheme that have been exposed to

be a huge scam.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan

National Publicity Secretary