PDP has questions to answer over squandered wealth, Buhari insists

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said that the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) still owes Nigerians explanation on how it
expended the humongous resources that accrued to the country from
oil sales between 1999 and 2014.

He made the remark while receiving the leadership of organized
labour which came to felicitate with him on his electoral victory
at State House, Abuja.

The President recounted how the current administration met a
country with dilapidated infrastructure all round in 2015, and
called to serious question what the party that was in power for 16
years did with the country’s earnings from oil, which reached a
peak during the period.

In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity,
Femi Adesina, the President said “PDP has not successfully
explained to the country what they did with the money.

“There were no roads, no rail, no power. They said they spent
$16 billion on power, but where is the power?

“The irresponsible expenditure of that period has not been
explained, and Nigerians deserve an answer on that terrible
mismanagement of the country.” he said

He thanked organized labour “for the support and patriotism you
have shown during the presidential election, especially after the
unexpected postponement.

“You and your members stepped in to support willing Nigerians to
exercise their civic and patriotic rights to vote. You intervened
as patriots, and not for political, religious or tribal purposes.
You simply did the right thing during a difficult period for many
of us.”

On what Nigerians can look forward to in the next lap of the
journey, President Buhari said he would continue pushing the Change
Agenda, “and remain focused on our core pillars of security,
economy, and fight against corruption.”

He urged organized labour to partner with the government to make
the country peaceful, prosperous, and corruption free.

In his remarks, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, lauded the President for being
worker-friendly, as exemplified in the granting of bailout funds to
state governments to pay backlog of salaries and pensions.

He said “We all remember the special bailout and budget support
you introduced to support state governments during the recession.
Your directive during this intervention was that state governments
must offset accumulated arrears of salaries and pension
liabilities.

“I remember you publicly asked state governors, ‘how do you
manage to sleep at night when the salaries of workers in your state
are not paid?’

“For us, that was one of the finest moments we have had with any
President in this country…I can stand here today and say your
intervention was the difference between life and death for many
workers,” he added.

The labour leader appealed to the National Assembly to earnestly
pass the National Minimum Wage Act, while also asking the President
to thereafter sign it into law within the shortest possible
time.

Organized labour pledged to remain “veritable partner in
progress with government,” counseling the President to continue to
“make the Nigerian people, especially the poor, the centre-piece of
your policy initiatives and actions.”