The Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum has demanded that the National Assembly should override Mr President’s assent on Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The Forum in its nine-point communique was read by its Chairman and the Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal at the end of its meeting hosted by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike at Government House in Port Harcourt on Monday.
The communique said in part, “The continued state of insecurity in the country, the persistent and ceaseless flow of Nigerians’ blood on a daily basis in many parts of Nigeria, the near-collapse of the security situation in Nigeria; the strategies to confront terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and other criminals is still a major problem of the APC administration.”
The communique expressed regrets that Mr President is unwilling, from his recent comments discountenancing the proposals for state policing, to participate in reviewing the structural problems of tackling insecurity in Nigeria and urged Mr President to reconsider his position and consider decentralisation and restructuring of the security architecture as the most viable solution, together with proper arming, funding and training requirements for security agencies.
“The Nigerian economy has continued to deteriorate and Nigerians have become numb and accustomed to bad economic news as exemplified by the inconsistent and differential exchange rate regime, high-interest rates, unsustainable unemployment figures and borrowing spree some of which have not been applied to important projects, and other bad economic indicators.
“In particular, it is clear that the APC Government is a massive failure when compared with the records of PDP in government. The PDP handed over a $550 billion economy (the largest in Africa), but under APC, Nigeria is the Poverty Capital of the world.
“In 2015, under PDP, the exchange rate was N198 per Dollar, it is now under APC almost N500 to a Dollar; In 2015, the unemployment rate was 7.3% under PDP, it is now 33%, one of the highest in the world under APC; In 2015, the pump price of petroleum product was N87 per litre, it is now N165 per litre and climbing under APC. Debt servicing now under APC takes over 98% of the federal budget. The tales of woe are endless,” it stated.