The Vice-Presidential Candidate representing the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential Election, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not delivered anything but disaster to the development of Nigeria.
Datti, who made this statement in an interview with ARISE PRIMETIME, also said that when Nigerians ‘wake up’ and decide that they want to take control of their country, anything can happen.
Speaking of President Tinubu’s past six months in power, Datti said, “This man has delivered nothing, and he is poised to deliver nothing. They have not moved an inch Nigeria from consumption and waste to production, and they will not do it. They will not stop the killings and start the healing. They will not stop the stealing and start the keeping, and they will not stop the slide of Nigeria, and they cannot start the climb.”
He said that the Tinubu Administration had not taken any bold steps except to “shut down IReV” and to “use misapplied force on the weak Nigerian institutions that we have.”
“For someone that has been playing ‘God’ for such a long time like Alhaji Tinubu and it is time for a mortal like maybe Obi or someone else to put him in his right place, for someone who has wielded so much power in a country like Nigeria, where is that power in the last six months to apply in our welfare and in our security? They cannot do it. They are in power for themselves. For their ego, for their wealth, for their comfort, for their own considerations, not for Nigeria,” he said.
However, when Datti’s attention was drawn to Nigeria’s Fitch rating, he said that the Fitch Statistics were misleading, further expanding by saying, “If you want to know what is happening in Nigeria, come to us in Nigeria and don’t read those statistics because they are misleading. They always speak about growth. It’s not growth actually that matters, those figures that give you, because there is nothing as misleading as far as welfare is concerned as growth. The stethoscope you use in measuring the heartbeat of an elephant, for example, China, cannot be the same one you use to measure the heartbeat of a rat.”
Datti then said that the Labour Party completely rejects and does not stand with the judgement from the supreme court, and that the judgement stands largely because ‘we can’t do anything about it,’ going on to say that “whoever thinks that the Supreme Court will give democracy from any courtroom, the way it appears now, is mistaken.”
He went on to expatiate on the matter, saying, “The petition court and the supreme court did not actually affirm the success of Tinubu’s presidency, they upheld the unconstitutionality of that election, and they are happy for it to remain so. And they have the power, nobody can do anything about it. That is why we said it is an unreasonable show of force. If there was something we could do, we would stop it, but we are law abiding citizens, that is why I’m here sitting with you today and still complaining.
“I was not shaken one bit. I will never be shaken by certificate forgery, by forfeited money over narcotics, I will never be shaken by IReV switched off in the middle of the game when they saw us winning. Labour Party won 2023 Presidential elections. No doubt about it. They are cheats, they are bullies and they have taken full advantage of the situation in Nigeria.”
The former Vice-Presidential candidate then said that the state of democracy in Nigeria is poor, and the people have to wake up. “For a people that are ready to accept anything, then anything will happen to them,” he said.
Datti also said that anytime the Nigerian people decide that they want to defend their constitution and take back power in their country, anything can happen, and any fraudulent government will be fair game for them.
He said, “For Peter Obi and Me, it is over. For we the people, the Nigerian people, at any point in time, they can take back Nigeria.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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