May 29: Labour Party fault Tinubu’s speech, says its shallow, defective

The Labour Party (LP), has described as shallow and defective, the inaugural speech made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday after his swearing-in.

The opposition party in a statement issued by the Acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said the inaugural speech exposed the policy incongruity of the administration.

According to the statement, the claim by the President that “the election that brought him to power was tough but fairly won,” was defective, recalling that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, on the inauguration of his government stated that the election that brought him to power was flawed and imperfect but promised to fix the nation’s electoral system.

“Nigerians were aghast with the boldness and glee with which Tinubu declared his election as fair.

“We consider this audacity as a slap on the faces of millions of Nigerians who voted their conscience but were robbed by a collective power of state institutions and brute brigandage unleashed on them,” the party added.

It noted the admonition of the then-presidential candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) Tinubu to his supporters to ‘grab power and run with it,’ and said it was “a directive that was effected on the February 25 election day.”

The party described Tinubu’s inauguration as Nigerian president as “a celebration of lies and deceit,” and said “That explains why the streets are like graveyards with no pomp and pageantry usually associated with a major” event like that.

The statement added that President Tinubu’s speech showed that there would be no departure from what Nigerians experienced between 2015 and now.

“In the last eight years, Nigerians were constantly fed with the narratives that the previous government of the PDP brought economic and political calamity upon the nation.

“In all those years, the Buhari government made little or no effort to improve upon these challenges,” it stated, adding that “Nigeria is again about to be confronted with a similar scenario if not a worse scenario.

“We are now calling on the highest office in Nigeria, the office of the people, not to allow this government any space to toy with the destiny of this nation again.

“APC ruined this nation and we must not allow a worse situation again. We must wake up to our roles of holding accountable those in positions of authority,” the party demanded.