A member of the House of
Representatives and one of the spokespersons of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Nnena Ukeje, has given some insight into
why President Muhammadu Buhari was ‘booed’ during the presentation of the 2019
budget on Wednesday.
According to
her, instead of addressing the National Assembly as the President of the
country, President Buhari’s mannerisms rather appeared as though he was merely
speaking as the flagbearer for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
She said this
when she made an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
According to
her, with an already heated polity, the Presidency ought to have taken a cue
from former President Goodluck Jonathan, who during his time, delegated the
assignment of presenting the budget to a “less contentious character”.
She
explained, “When Mr President walked into the hallowed chambers (I’ve watched
Mr President campaign a lot of the time) and I find that as he balls his fist,
there’s this frenzied response from his supporters.
 |
| Ukeje |
“As Mr
President walked into the House of Representatives on that day to present the
policy statement of the country for the next year, Mr President clenched his
fist and raised his hand. From that moment, in the eyes of some of my
colleagues, he transcended from the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria to the APC flagbearer and of course, the situation got very heated.
“In a country
that is as divided as Nigeria, the polity is so heated up, we saw the same
things happen in 2015 when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was supposed to
come and present his budget.
“You will
recall that at that time, we had a very active opposition, almost militant
opposition and they had said they were not going to allow President Goodluck
Jonathan, come into the National Assembly to deliver the budget.
“What we did
in the PDP at the time was engage with the president and say that it was a
potentially violent environment and the APC opposition had said they would do
everything to stop him from presenting the budget.
“Now, what we
did was go back and look into the constitution and the fact that even though it
had become customary for Mr. President to deliver the budget, the President was
still allowed to delegate his duties.
“Under
advisement, the president decided at the time to look for a less contentious
character and he decided to ask the Minister of Economy at the time, Okonjo
Iweala to come before the National Assembly and deliver the budget”.
Speaking of
the chances of the PDP, winning the presidential election after its previous
16-year-rule, Ukeje said she was confident that the party stood a better
chance.
According to
her, “APC has run out of ideas and the PDP comes with fresh new ideas that will
give the country hope in the direction that we must go”.
When asked
“should Nigerians trust your party”, she stated, “There was a referendum on the
PDP and that referendum was in 2015.
“In 2015
Nigerians voted overwhelmingly to remove the PDP from government and that is
the beautiful thing about democracy.
“Democracy is
self-correcting and the PDP came out and then everybody said we will vote for
the APC because we were tired of the PDP and it was legitimate.
“Nigerians
went out and voted the APC. Now that referendum is done.
“This is
three years down the line and there’s a new referendum and the questions
remain, do you sleep better at night, do you feel safer in Nigeria, is your
life better today, are you hungrier, is there better healthcare, can you say to
your children, that there is hope?
“If they say
that a government is as good as its people, I think it is time for the Nigerian
people to ask themselves one question, is my life better today than it was four
years ago?”
Culled from
Channels TV
