VISIT TO BENUE: PDP BLASTS PRESIDENT BUHARI

ABUJA, Nigeria – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s afterthought visit to Benue, several months after the massacre of Nigerians, as needless and serves only as a large billboard of his administration’s gross insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians. The party however said its mega rally, which held in Dutse, Jigawa State, today, has opened a new vista for the party as the true hope for Nigerians.

The PDP said President Buhari’s visits to troubled states, particularly Benue, serve no sincere purpose since they did not come from the heart but evidently orchestrated for political reasons.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Monday said it is appalling and highly disheartening that a President can only visit his distressed citizens after a widespread outcry over his aloofness and not out of any genuine concern for their wellbeing.

What is the purpose of condolence visit when it does not come from the heart but orchestrated to deceive and beguile the people ahead of the 2019 general elections? Indeed, we agree no less with Nigerians that this cosmetic and politically motivated visit is nothing but a direct mockery of the dead and a heavy slap on the faces of the bereaved.

This is the same president, who at the wake of the massacre, summoned the leaders and the bereaved to Abuja, rather than complying with the age-long tradition of Africans by immediately visiting the bereaved.

Months after their tears have dried and they are painfully gathering their broken pieces, the Presidency is now trying to use them for a political posturing by staging a cosmetic condolence visit just to score a political point.

More off-putting is the fact that following the public criticisms that trailed the President’s glaring aloofness and failure to visit the direct victims during his whistle stops in Taraba and Plateau states, his handlers has now arranged a put-on visit to some Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Benue, which is nothing but a posturing stunt to further deceive the people.

If the Buhari administration is genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the people of Benue and other trouble states, what decisive step has been taken to apprehend those behind the carnage and bring them to book? What steps have been taken to ensure adequate protection for the people and to end the daily bloodletting in the land?

Instead the government has engaged in making reproachful comments and dishing out false information to the people.

The PDP therefore charges the Presidency to end the unnecessary roadshow and take decisive steps to ensure the security of the people. Furthermore, those organizing the road shows must understand that Nigerians can no longer be deceived by cosmetic and pretentious posturing from this grossly insensitive and incompetent administration, which has brought them so much pain.