The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) have continued to trade words over issues of national concerns and the Federal Government’s response, or the lack of it.
While the ruling APC defends the government’s ‘legacy’ of socioeconomic progress, the opposition ADC insists that the opposite is the reality for the Nigerian public.
Lagos State chapter of the APC faulted the ADC’searlier criticisms of the President dubbed ‘birthday message’, describing the letter as “disgraceful” and reflective of a party in crisis.
The APC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Seye Oladejo, said the ADC’s remarks, which it claimed were presented as a birthday message, fell short of basic standards of decency and civility.
He added that at a time when “basic human decency demands restraint and goodwill”, the ADC chose “the low road of bitterness and petty political hostility.”
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday, flayed the Presidency’s response to national issues raised in the party’s birthday message to President Bola Tinubu.
Abdullahi said the rebuttal, published by Mr Sunday Dare, avoided the real, everyday reality Nigerians are living through.
According to Abdullahi: “Inflation is not an abstract concept. It is the mother who can no longer afford food the way she did a year ago. It is the young worker whose salary has stayed the same while transport fares have doubled under this government. It is the small business owner watching costs rise faster than their sales.
“These are not theories. They are the direct consequences of decisions taken under the Bola Tinubu-led APC administration, particularly the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy without any immediate or credible cushioning for over 200 million Nigerians.
Today, fuel prices have risen by nearly 500 per cent, and everything else has followed.”
Describing Mr Dare’s rebuttal as a carefully worded article, the ADC spokesperson said Nigerians wanted direct answers to the issues raised in his party’s birthday message to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“On the price of fuel, is the Tinubu government telling Nigerians that there is nothing they can do to bring down the price of fuel? Since the war on Iran started, governments all over the world have taken different emergency measures to keep the price of fuel down.
But all we hear from the Tinubu government is that Nigerians should continue to endure.
“On security, the conversation is even more painful, because it is about lives.Under this presidency, Nigeria now ranks fourth on the Global Terrorism Index. But beyond rankings are real people, families who have lost loved ones, communities that no longer sleep with both eyes closed. Daughters raped in front of their fathers, and wives raped in front of their children.
And in the short time between our birthday message and this rebuttal, at least 12 Nigerians were killed in Plateau State. 12 people. 12 families. In just a few hours. This is why Nigerians expect urgency, not explanations.”
He stressed that what has remained important to the Nigerian people is accountability, not narratives that do not tally with reality.
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