- President excused to go home and rest – Ijaw youths
- Economic advancement, opportunity cost of blind loyalty – Economists
- PDP, APC, different sides of same coin – Democracy Vanguard
- Nigerians have no other choice – Ruling party
A cross-section of Nigerians have said they are not willing to follow President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to the “Next Level” as captured by the All Progressives Congress’ campaign slogan for the 2019 elections.
The citizens, mainly professionals across various sectors, including pressure groups, attributed their reluctance to buy the APC next level catchphrase to what they described as the absence of a clear leader directing the affairs of Nigeria.
While many of the respondents spoke firmly against the continuation of the APC regime, claiming that those in charge of affairs lacked the requisite capacity to drive a country as complex as Nigeria, economically, some hinged their doubt on what they termed “visibly deteriorating health of the presidential candidate of the APC.”
Some respondents, however, said they were not also supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, because both parties were “birds of the same feather,” but claimed that anyone would perform better than the current President.
Next Level means advanced poverty – Right Monitoring Group
The President, Right Monitoring Group, Mr. Femi Aduwo, urged Nigerians to ask the APC what their slogan, “Next Level” actually meant. He said by embracing the Next Level, Nigerians would inadvertently be embracing advanced poverty.
Speaking with The Point, he said, “The nation, for years, has no longer been working, and APC is promising Next Level. Next level of what? Next level of advanced poverty? The party promised to reduce pump price of petrol to N45 but it increased it to N145 per litre. So in the next level, we should get ready for N200 per litre?
“Nigeria, under Buhari, is borrowing to finance infrastructure. That is wrong. You should be borrowing for investment. The Federal Inland Revenue Serrvice said it was targeting about N8trillion and our budget is N8trillion. What this means is that we don’t need to go to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation before financing our budget. But what do you find? We don’t fully fund our budget. Nigeria can only work again if we follow the path of true federalism.”
‘Economic advancement, opportunity cost of blind loyalty’
An Economist and financial analyst, Dr. Precious Madojutimi, said she had never been active during an election year, but that she found herself preaching to everyone around her that they should be prepared for the worst if they agreed “to follow Buhari’s APC to the next level.”
Madojutimi, who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said, “I have never, in my 25 years as an Economist, seen a situation where micro and macro-economic policies would be conflicting in such a way that the handlers of the economy would not know that the whole country is heading for a big crash, and will do nothing urgent to save Nigerians from the consequences. I am utterly disappointed at those who should know in this government but have chosen to satisfy their greed and continue the propaganda of the ‘rot of 16 years of PDP.’
“If there was no rot, why would people vote them in the first instance. They claimed to have all the answers. Now, I am not saying that Nigeria’s problems should be solved in four years. But it was not as bad as that. We were moving gradually, with major indices pointing North.”
She added, “We can’t rule out the fact that corruption was going on, but after more than three years, they are still crying that some people spoilt the economy, without a clue as to how to go about solving the problems. What we have seen is that, under this government, the advancement of citizens and the economy has become the forgone conclusion where blind loyalty is concerned.
“How can a driver who does not understand where the passengers are going, because he cannot comprehend what they are saying, like we have seen in recent debates, take them to a safe destination? It is not possible. Anyone who is still supporting Buhari at this time is an enemy of Nigeria and one of those benefitting from the present day corruption and high-level deceit.”
APC, PDP, different sides of the same coin – Soetan
The National Coordinator, Democracy Vanguard, Comrade Adeola Soetan, also called on Nigerians to reject ‘the next level’ promised by the ruling APC.
Speaking with The Point, Soetan said the APC had failed to define the next level, just as he insisted that the PDP was not also an option for Nigerians.
He said, “The ‘Next Level’ is undefined. Why must we embrace the next level when what they promised us four years ago has not been achieved? They promised improvement in security; insecurity is the order of the day. They promised true federalism, devolution of power, autonomy for local councils. They have not even taken any steps towards achieving these. This is because the President produced by the party, Muhammadu Buhari, is ultra conservative.
“Even with the presence of the so-called progressive people from the South West, like Senator Bola Tinubu, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who have been ‘hawking’ restructuring before 2015, the APC government has not changed anything in the nation’s structure. If they promised change and we could not see any change, why must we embrace “the next level? You may ask, ‘next level of what?’”
He added, “They promised jobs; job loss is on the increase. Even the much-flaunted anti-corruption has not yielded much results. The recent report of Transparency International has shown that not much has been achieved with the anti corruption war.
“The PDP too is not the alternative. Both PDP and APC are two sides of a coin. They are both driving towards capitalism. The two of them are in support of underpayment of workers.”
Buhari deserves to go and rest – Ijaw Youth
The National Leader of the Ijaw Youth, Chief Harry Charles, said the President did not deserve to be in office beyond May 2019.
“I think he should go back to Daura and take a well deserved rest. The mistakes he has made during his campaigns show that he is not in control of himself and should go and rest. It has nothing to do with APC or PDP. He has done his best”
For Chief Martin Onovo, Buhari’s second term bid is nothing but “evil.”
According to him, Buhari has failed Nigeria in all ramifications, so his second term will only spell doom for the country.
Onovo said, “Next level is a level of corruption, insecurity. If we compare where we are today with 2016, 2017 and 2018, you will see that all these things are getting worse. This is very true. What was the security level before he came in and what is it today? What was the unemployment level and what is it today? What was the National debt level? What is it today? What was exchange rate when he came? N197. It is N350 today.
“Next level is next level of over taxation, heavy terrorism. The herdsmen have reduced their activities because of election. After the election, they will continue their violence. You think that Boko Haram has been stopped? This government gave two million euros to Boko Haram. This government funded the insurgency we are seeing.”
He gave a different meaning to stability, saying, “Yes, he has stabilised the economy but he stabilised it at N350 from N197. You stabilised it by putting 20 million people in unemployment. We want him to make it grow and not stabilise it. He came to power to grow the economy. You did not come to power to stabilise crime rate at a very high level. You did not come to increase unemployment and stabilise it there.”
On his part, the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Shetima Yerima, said, “President Buhari coming back is not worth it because he has failed in all ramifications. In terms of security, in terms of fight against corruption, he has scored zero. In terms of uniting the country, we are more divided than we were in the past; in terms of development and moving the country forward economically, it is zero, because the poorest economic team I’ve ever seen was constituted by this present administration.
“It is so bad that they don’t even know what they want and what exactly they want to achieve. They don’t even have a target. So, to that extent, if there is a total failure, there won’t be any room for consideration on that basis. We have been patient enough to give him enough time to see if there is going to be a change but, in all indices, everything has pointed to the fact that he is not even seeing anything wrong with this country. All Nigerians must use the power of their vote to ensure that he is voted out and a new government installed. The only person we look forward to is Atiku Abubakar.”
Nigerians have no other choice – Igbokwe, Lagos APC spokesman
However, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, believes that Nigerians don’t have any other choice than to embrace APC’s ‘Next Level.’
According to him, for the first time in the history of the country, Nigerians can see serious efforts at rebuilding the nation.
He said, “The Next Level is what the country needs. You can see what is going on, the fight against corruption, growing infrastructure and the intensity of campaign going on to sustain such efforts. We need to continue with characters that we can trust. If the tempo is sustained in the next four years, Nigeria will be a good place to live in. Once you address corruption, almost half of the country’s problems are gone. Every damn thing can be traced to corruption.
“You can see the number of people so far arrested for corruption, the amount of stolen money recovered.”
Corroborating Igbokwe, a technocrat, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said, “Nigerians will decide the fate of Buhari. From the economic point of view, he has tried his best. He met the economy bad, later it entered into recession and he was able to bring it out of recession. He has also tried to tackle corruption. He tried his best to ameliorate Nigerians’ problems. I will not say whether he deserves a second term or not. Nigerians have the answer, but he has tried his best in all sectors of the country.”
Quote 1
They promised improvement in security; insecurity is the order of the day. They promised true federalism, devolution of power, autonomy for local councils. They have not even taken any steps towards achieving these. This is because the President produced by the party, Muhammadu Buhari, is ultra conservative
Quote 2:
The nation, for years, has no longer been working, and APC is promising Next Level. Next level of what? Next level of advanced poverty? The party promised to reduce pump price of petrol to N45 but it increased it to N145 per litre