‘Very Sad Nigerians Are Experiencing Buhari’s 2.0 Governance Under Tinubu’
The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Peter Ameh, has expressed disappointment with the current state of the country under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
During a recent interaction with journalists, Ameh, who said that Nigeria is now back to the Muhammadu Buhari era, said the citizens are now enduring more hardship, a double portion of what they experienced under the immediate past administration led by the Daura man.
According to Ameh, the problems Nigerians are currently facing can be attributed to the removal of fuel subsidies without proper planning and arrangements to mitigate the impact on the general population.
The CUPP national secretary also examined the rising costs of transportation and its subsequent effect on food prices in the market, saying it becomes evident that the working class of Nigeria, who earn a minimum wage of N30,000 or even less, are being significantly burdened.
He mentioned that the government failed to anticipate the skyrocketing transportation costs and how it would hinder the movement of food from various regions to major cities like Lagos and Abuja.
Ameh said this lack of foresight has negatively impacted the masses at the end of the consumer chain. He stressed that it was disheartening to witness the government’s insensitivity and their refusal to acknowledge their own ignorance and lack of solutions.
Nigeria Is Back To Muhammadu Buhari Era
Speaking on why he said that Nigeria is back to Buhari’s era, Ameh said: “Because if you listen to Adebayo Shittu, former Minister of Communication under former President Muhammadu Buhari, he said Buhari could give you an assignment and for four years, he might not even ask you about the assignment. Two, Buhari did not respect the law. Buhari wasn’t writing to the National Assembly to seek approval to travel abroad or informing them.
“Buhari would stay overseas for weeks. Look at the countries that President Bola Tinubu has visited since May 29, in less than eight months. Look at how many times he has travelled. What are the direct foreign investments that he has attracted? Just like Buhari, none.
“So, you will find out that Buhari spent most of his time in the UK. Today, we now have a President who spends all his time in France. He will not tell us the details of his journey. He’s not a private individual. He’s a public individual spending public resources, using public utilities, and living on public security. So, how will he continue to live a private life in a public status? We cannot autopilot this nation and expect it to work. We cannot run this country remotely and expect it to work. Tinubu shouldn’t allow Nigerians remember the Buhari days for good and begin to compare him with the former president.
“It is disheartening and painful that we are experiencing these Buhari’s 2.0 governance system. It is disheartening that we must now start to take it seriously. Most painful is that we have a National Assembly that does not have enough courage, a National Assembly that does not have the necessary courage to ask questions and demand that the right thing be done by the President,” Ameh told The PUNCH.
It Is In Their DNA, They Can’t Change
When asked about his opinion about the stand of some Nigerians that seven months is not enough for President Tinubu to address economic and security challenges of about 11 years, Ameh said without reservation that the government in power is not prepared to govern.
According to him, the government is only prepared for propaganda which is in their blood and cannot change.
His words read: “That’s why I am telling you that these people are not prepared to govern. These people are prepared for press conferences and propaganda. That’s why the President said last time that they would no longer govern with propaganda, but they can’t change. It is in their DNA; it is in their nature to govern with propaganda.
“They can’t change. If you are going to get into government, you’re supposed to hit the ground running from day one because you know what you want to do in government. You have a manifesto; you have the programmes and plans on how to run your security architecture. You have programmes or plans on how to deploy those who are supposed to be in charge of various security units to make sure that we get results.
“As we talk, Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory are no longer safe. People are living in fear. So, the general view of the people is that this current government is not ready; the current government is not interested in making sure that Nigeria works for our people because if they are ready, they are not supposed to wait until they get into government before they start to know what to do. They are supposed to know what to do, from their intention to run to whatever promises they’ve made on the campaign ground. So, these are the major contributors to what people are seeing today.
“The government that came into power did not have any new security architecture to bring to the table. It is just running on the same old failed system. They didn’t know what to do; they came unprepared.”
