- Senator Shehu Sani backs moves
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – In what many are already touting as the new policy direction of his second term administration, President Muhammadu Buhari said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must comprehensively explain to Nigerians how their commonwealth was managed for 16 years.
He maintained that the opposition party still owed Nigerians explanation on how it spent humongous resources that accrued to the country from oil sales between 1999 and 2014.
Interestingly, support for the President’s stance has come from an unexpected quarter with outspoken Senator Shehu Sani saying all past and present PDP actors should be ready to account for their roles.
President Buhari threw the challenge when the organized labour leadership visited the State House, Abuja on Thursday to congratulate him over his victory at the February 23 presidential poll.
He said given the APC-led administration met a country with an all round dilapidated infrastructures in 2015, the situation demands the party that was in power for 16 years has a lot to explain.
The President said the time has come for PDP to fully account for what it did with the country’s earnings from oil, which reached its peak during that period.
According to him, “PDP has not successfully explained to the country what they did with the money. There were no roads; no rail; and no power. They said they spent $16 billion on power, but where is the power?
“The irresponsible expenditure of that period has not been explained, and Nigerians deserve an answer on that terrible mismanagement of the country.”
He commended organized labour for the support and patriotism shown during the presidential election, especially after the unexpected postponement.
“You and your members stepped in to support willing Nigerians to exercise their civic and patriotic rights to vote. You intervened as patriots, and not for political, religious or tribal purposes. You simply did the right thing during a difficult period for many of us.”
The President said his administration is determined to push through with the Change Agenda for ‘Next Level’ achievements, adding that government would focused on its ‘core pillars of security, economy, and fight against corruption.’
He challenged the Labour movement to partner with government to make Nigeria ‘peaceful, prosperous, and corruption free.’
Speaking at the occasion, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, lauded the President for being worker-friendly, as exemplified in the granting of bailout funds to State governments to pay backlog of salaries and pensions.
“We all remember the special bailout and budget support you introduced to support state governments during the recession.
“Your directive during this intervention was that state governments must offset accumulated arrears of salaries and pension liabilities. I remember you publicly asked state governors, ‘how do you manage to sleep at night when the salaries of workers in your state are not paid?’
“For us, that was one of the finest moments we have had with any President in this country…I can stand here today and say your intervention was the difference between life and death for many workers.”
Comrade Wabba, who pleaded with the National Assembly to quickly pass the National Minimum Wage Bill, also requested the President to thereafter sign it into law within the shortest possible time.
He pledged that Organized labour would remain “veritable partner in progress with government,” and urged the President not to relent in making “the Nigerian people, especially the poor, the centre-piece of your policy initiatives and actions.”
Shehu Sani Backs Buhari
Surprisingly, the Senator, representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani has thrown his weight behind the President’s demand that the PDP should explain to Nigerians how they squandered $592 billion the country earned as revenue from 1999 to 2015.
Senator Sani, who lost his re-election bid during the February 23 National Assembly polls on the platform of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), urged the opposition PDP to recall all its past and present members to prepare for a comprehensive probe into the management of Nigeeria’s resources in the last 20 years.
Writing in support of Buhari’s position on his Twitter handle, Senator Sani also said: “I advise the opposition party to recall all its past and present members (1999 to 2015) to prepare and present to Mr President and the nation a full report of such a monumental waste.”
I support the President’s demand that the PDP should explain how they squandered $592 Billion. I advice the opposition party to recall all its past and present members (1999 to 2015), to prepare and present to Mr President and the nation a full report of such a monumental waste
