FG to PDP govs: Face governance, complement not distracting Tinubu

The Federal Government has urged the governors elected on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support President Bola Tinubu to tackle the various challenges bewildering the country rather than calling for his resignation.

The PDP governors had, in a statement on Saturday, February 17, 2024, enjoined Tinubu to “throw in the towel” if he can’t govern Nigeria anymore.

The governors hinged the call on economic hardship and insecurity in the country.

However, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, described the governors’ call as “an attempt at distraction by people who should instead be busy supporting the President’s efforts at bringing economic relief to the Nigerian people.”

Idris, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Rabiu Ibrahim, on Sunday, said the PDP and its governors should not be seeking, through the back door of intimidation, what they failed to achieve by democratic means, since 2015.

The minister noted that the PDP failed to bring transformational change while in power, stressing that the party and its officials “should not seek to interrupt or distract those who are busy at work on the presidential vision that Nigerians elected them to implement.”

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“To the PDP Governors, let us reiterate: This is not the time for distraction. It is time instead for the rolling up of sleeves, to support and complement the hard work of the President and his administration,” he added.

Idris said Tinubu’s administration has since inception “generously” extended financial support to all the state governments, noting that the removal of the petrol subsidy, “which incidentally was one of the main planks of the PDP presidential campaign” has swelled the revenues of all states, including the PDP states.

“To whom more has been given, more is therefore expected,” he stressed.

The minister added that Tinubu “is not and will never be overwhelmed by the current challenges the country is facing, saying the president will not abdicate his responsibilities.

He said: “He will courageously continue to wrestle with the challenges and surmount them, laying a durable foundation for the new Nigeria that is emerging.

“He has also never shied away from acknowledging the pain of ongoing reforms, and has seized every opportunity to assure Nigerians that inside the pain of the reforms lie the seeds of lasting prosperity and national development.”

The Star