The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said President Muhammadu Buhari would have no other option than to handover power in 2023.
The party challenged Buhari to withdraw what it termed “unnecessary remark” in his new year message.
The president had in the early hours of the New year day released a letter to Nigerians stating among other things that he “will be standing down in 2023 and will not be available in any future elections.”
But the PDP took a swipe at the letter stating that President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) “would have no other option than to exit office at the end of this tenure.”
The PDP in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this while reacting to the President’s letter.
The party described the new year message as “completely uninspiring, tasteless, repetitive, vacuous and does not galvanise any kind of hope for a despairing nation like ours.”
“The PDP holds that Mr. President should have the courage to issue a fresh new year message to show remorse for the corruption, incompetence and the misrule of his administration as well as admonish his disintegrating APC against its crass insincerity, violence bad divisive machinations that have brought so much pain, anguish and despondency to our nation.
“Indeed, President Buhari should stop presenting a picture as if he has the option to continue in office beyond 2023.
“The PDP holds, in total submission to the letters and the spirit of the 1999 constitution (as amended), that it is not an issue of ‘standing down’ or not being ‘available’ for future election, but a decided and inevitable position as contained in our constitution that he must quit office after two terms which will end in 2023.
The party also stated that President Buhari should stop what it called “showboating” by issuing a new year message to demonstrate commitment to electoral reforms by returning the 8th Assembly Electoral Act Amendment bill, which was not signed by the President, to the National Assembly.
The party challenged the president to order immediate prosecution of party leaders who perpetrated violence in the 2019 general elections as well as the governorship elections in Ekiti, Osun, Bayelsa and Kogi states.
