By David Olalekan.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has bemoaned the increasing rate of depression and misery in the country, which it links to the “incompetence” of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Describing the torrid times the country is currently faced with as a national tragedy, the PDP said it was saddening that since the conclusion of the last presidential election, Nigerians have been committing suicide and fleeing the country in droves instead of celebrating.
In a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, it stated that “the rising spate of suicides, slavery mission abroad, divorces, child abandonment and other social degeneration are occasioned by the worsening economic hardship, poverty, hunger and rising insecurity under the incompetent, corrupt, divisive and manipulative APC administration.”
The opposition party further decried the citizenry are overwhelmed by gloom, given to the fact that their majority vote for a new and result-oriented government headed by the PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar was sabotaged and stolen in the February 23 Presidential election.
The accompanying social ills, the party hinted, are in response to bad governance which happens when citizens are downcast.
“In the last few months, the news media has been awash with horrible reports of teenage suicide in our country.
“Banditry, insurgency, marauding, bloodletting and kidnapping with unmentionable ransoms, have almost become daily occurrences. Our citizenry is now battling with the worst kind of siege mentality.
“Constitutional violations, human rights abuses, arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings, assault on perceived dissenting voices and attempt at annexation of our institutions of democracy, particularly the judiciary, signposts a nation in dire strait.
“Misery has set in. This is evident in the shrinking of our nation’s Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) to 2.1percent in the first quarter of 2019.
“It is saddening that at the time Nigerians ought to be celebrating, they are rather forlorn, committing suicide and exiting the country in droves.
“Most Nigerians have become downhearted in the face of an administration that wrecked our once robust economy and divided our people; in the face of worsening joblessness, piling bills, hunger and diseases; in the face of incompetence, lies, and unfulfilled promises of free homes, monthly allowance to unemployed youth and the poor, bringing the naira to the same value as the US Dollar, creating of 5 million new jobs, ending of insurgency in three months and myriad of other false promises.
“Instead, what our nation has witnessed is an official entrenchment and elevation of incompetence, deceit, propaganda, failure and cabal mentality on the corridors of power; a situation where the only achievement is the foisting of economic recession and mortgaging of the future of our nation with the accumulation of N24.39 trillion debt, with no tangible project to show.
“It is instructive to state that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration has obstinately refused to allow any scrutiny of its books, knowing that they are catalogues of corruption, treasury looting, violations, impunity and acts that have brought our nation to its knees.”
The PDP, however encouraged Nigerians to support one another at this trying time to help curtail the social decline of the country, especially the rising rate of suicide.