APC, PDP clash over dead board appointees

•PDP: ‘A govt that appoints dead people cannot run Nigeria’
•APC: ‘You’re belittling governance, embarrassing yourself’
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday lashed out at the Buhari-led APC administration over what it called unpardonable national embarrassment caused by the appointment of dead persons as chairmen/members of the newly constituted boards and parastatals.
The opposition party said the gaffe is a further confirmation that the APC administration is completely confused, disorganized and grossly incompetent.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in turn labelled PDP ridiculous and an embarrassment to see everything as an opportunity to attack the administration “without looking at the seriousness of their claims.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement in Abuja said: “Nigerians can now see why the nation’s economy has been in shambles in the last two years. When we say that this government is completely inept, some Nigerians did not know to which level, but now they do.
“This inability to tidy up a simple issue of list of 209 appointees has completely exposed the extent the APC government is bereft of simple organizational skills to manage a country like Nigeria, which is in dire need of development.
“How on earth can a government that cannot compile a common list handle intricate issues of national planning and budgeting; issues of health, education, aviation, agriculture, infrastructure and management of the huge civil service?
“How can they possibly initiate and successfully implement national and international instruments for national development in today’s competitive world?
“This also explains why nothing has been working under the APC government. Furthermore, the mix up in the list also exposes the corruption in the APC government.
“The fact is that the government of our dear country has been in wrong hands in the last two years and the situation will continue to worsen unless the nation is rescued from them in 2019.
“Finally, we urge Nigerians to disregard the lame excuses by the APC government and hold them responsible for the woes that have befallen our country under their inept and undesirable regime.”
However, in reacting to the PDP statement last night, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said the opposition party was only belittling governance and embarrassing itself with the way it seeks to use every opportunity to attack the Buhari administration.
He said “it is embarrassing that the PDP sees every move as evidence of APC’s inability to rule the country.
“Things happen. I don’t think the PDP which has governed the country before should respond in such embarrassing manner to a situation where in a list of over 200 a few names, which ought to have been removed, escaped scrutiny.
“These people died while the process of compiling the list was still on. It is nothing more than an honest mistake.
“With the way it is trivializing every issue, PDP is embarrassing itself and belittling governance. If after several years in power, they still don’t know that governing a country is more than the trivial things they take so serious, then it is quite embarrassing. How on earth can a party like PDP say because of such honest mistake, APC is not qualified to rule Nigeria?
“But we understand their desperation to take advantage of everything to gain prominence and seek political mileage.
“But it is ridiculous for them to now see everything as an opportunity to attack this administration without looking at the seriousness of their claims. It is quite embarrassing.”
|The Nation