The Peoples Democratic Party has stated that the All Progressive Congress has a poor understanding of governance citing its comment over Twitter building its headquarters in Ghana.
On Thursday, the APC through a statement issued by the National Secretary of its Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe said it was a no issue and was purely a business decision by a private organization.
Lending his voice, the Minister of information and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed blamed Nigerians for projecting the image of the country negatively on social media platforms including Twitter, especially during the #EndSARS protests last October. The nationwide protest started on Twitter before physical mobilisation on the streets.
Further speaking to Punch, Lai Mohammed was quoted saying, “The reasons cited by Twitter for citing the headquarters in Accra, Ghana is that Accra is a champion of democracy and there is rule of law in Accra, among other reasons.
“This is what you get when you de-market your own country. This will teach a lot of us a lesson that we have no country than Nigeria.”
“We are not saying that you should not criticise the country but be fair and patriotic. When you destroy your own house, where are you going to live?
“You can imagine the kind of job opportunities that siting that headquarters in Nigeria would have created, the kind of visibility it would have given Nigeria but we destroyed it. It is what the insiders say about their country that the outsider will use to judge and condemn the country.”
Responding to APC, PDP stated that the administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari was “not ready to end their policy inconsistency and the fettering of our youths through suppression of free speech, stifling of online freedom and open internet, for which Twitter shunned our nation for Ghana.”
Read the full speech below;
The Peoples Democratic Party describes the declaration by the @OfficialAPCNg that the by-passing of Nigeria by Twitter to cite its African Headquarters in Ghana as “a non-issue” further confirms All Progressive Congress and Muhammadu Buhari Presidency’s poor understanding of governance.
The PDP asserts that the statement issued by the APC in a desperate bid to justify its manifest misrule and abuse of human rights shows that the APC and Buhari administration is not ready to end their policy inconsistency and the fettering of our youths through suppression of free speech, stifling of online freedom and open internet, for which Twitter shunned our nation for Ghana.
This disposition by the APC and the Buhari Presidency has further strengthened the widespread view among Nigerians that this administration suppresses every vocation in which our youth demography has shown interest.
Their statement also validates apprehensions in the public space that the APC deliberately worked against the citing of Twitter headquarters in Nigeria because of their plot to forcefully regulate the use of the internet in our country.
A more responsive government and political party, who have the interest of the people at heart, ought to the device all means possible to attract the Africa Headquarters of Twitter to our country given the huge benefits such would have served in the face of grinding unemployment which the APC administration has imposed on our nation.
It is indeed saddening that rather than devise means such as this opportunity to create wealth and revamp our economy, the APC and the Buhari Presidency are mortgaging the future of our nation through all manner of foreign loans which they cannot account for.
Now that they have borrowed from all corners of the world and turning our country into a debtor nation, with nothing to show for it, the APC and the Buhari administration have resorted to primitive printing of naira notes not minding the huge inflation as well as devastation such would trigger in our economy.
From the arrogant disposition of the APC, it is clear that it has no regard for Nigerians and as such has no business being in governance.
Earlier, PDP accused APC that it was its misrule that made Twitter cite its headquarters in Ghana and also detailing the economic impact it would have had on Nigeria’s economy.
