The Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Media, Rev. Richard Peters, has tackled the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government over its alleged failure to fulfill all its campaign promises.
This came even as the current administration is winding down its last tenure and the campaigns for the 2023 elections officially flagged off on Wednesday, 28 September.
In a statement made available to journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, on Thursday, Peters urged the people not to be deceived again by the empty campaign promises of the APC in 2015 but to be decisive in choosing leaders in the coming elections that would redeem the nation.
According to the cleric, “it is incumbent on the electorate to be more intentional about who they want to hand over the mantle of leadership to, come 2023. This is a very decisive moment that should not be treated with kid gloves.”
Peters, who decried the inflation rate and hardship in the country, wondered how President Muhammadu Buhari would be building a refinery in Niger Republic while none is functional in Nigeria.
“Exchange rate of the dollar has reached an all-time record of N725 and N730, while corruption has been given an exalted position and even normalized in the country.
“None of the refineries is functional, while Buhari’s government is busy building a refinery at Niger republic, an attempt to please a stranger at the expense of one’s family. The Bible says such a man is worse than an infidel. Insecurity is not to be mentioned at all, as no where is safe in the country,” he lamented.
He recalled that when APC came in 2015 with its change mantra, Nigerians never asked what change the party was bringing to the table, rather, all they wanted was change, regretting that everyone is clamoring for another change today.
He said, “Nigerians were promised to expect a bumper harvest, where one naira will equal one dollar, fuel sold as cheap as N40.00 per liter, Boko Haram crushed in 3 weeks, corruption fought to a standstill, all the four refineries revamped in four years, and many more. In the last count, none of the promises have been met. Instead, it is becoming worse by the day.
“Fuel which was sold at N89 per liter when Muhammadu Buhari took over is now “graciously” sold at N198 per liter. From 2015 to date, policies of the APC government have taken Nigeria 10 years backward. From the removal of fuel subsidy that Buhari never believed in until he took over power to the ordination of corruption at an unprecedented dimension, as well as the never-imagined insecurity and wanton killings.
“The APC-led FG could not address the agitation of Nigerian lecturers; instead of meeting their demands in order for Nigerian students to go back to school, they focused on the next election by sacrificing the liberation of the next generation on the altar of irresponsibility. As it is, there is no hope from anywhere that things will change for the better, except power is taken back from them.
“The signs are very clear that if we make the same mistake we made in 2015, we will be nothing more than the iconic Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece “There was a Country”.
He said as the campaigns kick-started, people should do the needful by voting for the party founded on the platform of social justice, national integration, and the core principles of democracy.