Barely 24Hrs After President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians in a nationwide address on a live broadcast, the Oyo state chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hailed some of the president’s critical decisions with regards to its initial total lockdown of Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT.
Oyo PDP in a statement through its state publicity secretary, Engr Akeem Olatunji and made available to press men on Tuesday (today), stated that the Buhari’s decision to rescind some of its earlier decisions as they have adversely affected Nigerians negatively was a testimony to governor Seyi Makinde’s approach to combating the dreaded pandemic logically and scientifically which has remained good template for emulation.
The party noted with disdain how opposition parties in the state particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC) had attempted unsuccessfully to discredit governor Makinde’s bold and giant strides in keeping the state safe from a larger outbreak of the disease within the ambient of very limited resources while allowing commerce to thrive during partial lockdown in Oyo state.
According to the statement, the ruling party described APC in Oyo state as a group of people living in a fantasy world devoid of any touch with current realities noting that governor Makinde was an epitome of sound and qualitative leadership who has been working tirelessly to restore the human dignity and dignity of labour among the people and its workforce.
Engr Akeem Olatunji stressed that the only option left for APC in Oyo state was to genuinely seek the forgiveness of the people it plunged into untold hardship for eight years of draconian and dictatorial rule.
The ruling party stated further that it doesn’t take any rocket science for any leader with good conscience to know that total lockdown of any state or country including crippling an already struggling economy like one in Nigeria without the capacity or political will to make proper provisions for alternative means of livelihood would be counterproductive stressing that governor Makinde was daily showing APC government at all levels how to achieve good governance.
Engr Akeem Olatunji alluded to the fact that all states and countries have their peculiarities adding that what worked well for one state might be counterproductive for another noting that governor Makinde always worked with full understanding of Oyo terrain as against other states which has resulted in his incomparable success story so far as the governor of the state.
The PDP spokesman in Oyo state therefore, urged APC in the state to critically learn from president Buhari’s decision to incorporate Makinde’s template for fighting COVID-19 into a national policy, insisting that regardless of political differences, human reasoning should not degenerate into a state of playing politics with human lives.
The party however assured that its government under the leadership of governor Makinde will not be deterred by needless calculated distractions by the opposition particularly the APC stressing that the people will always remain the focal point of its government policies and programs.