The Presidential Support Committee (PSC) has described as unsolicited and diversionary the criticisms trailing President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to the United Kingdom enroute Saudi Arabia where he is currently attending the Economic Forum of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).
Condemnation had trailed the official disclosure that Buhari would again travel to the United Kingdom on a private visit after his official trip to Saudi Arabia, with reports quoting interest groups and politicians from the opposition camp as saying the president was abdicating his official responsibilities.
But the presidential support committee said it is becoming glaring that the opposition, as alternative government, is bereft of constructive ideas to contribute to the nation’s development, and to cover up for the deficiencies, it has resorted to distorting facts and realities on ground.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its Director of Communications and Strategic Planning, Mallam Gidado Ibrahim, the PSC faulted critics of the president’s diplomatic shuttles, maintaining that the trips do not have an adverse effect on governance in the country.
Ibrahim said, “We are aware that similar trips to the UK in the past had stirred animated discussions about the state of the president’s health, but the latest announcement by the presidency did not indicate that the planned trip to the UK is on health grounds. The president is entitled to rest. The opposition should stop spreading fake news and making inciting remarks.
“The same opposition elements who had prayed for President Muhammadu Buhari’s death while on medical vacation in London are the ones trying to saturate the country’s public space with insinuations that the president was engaging in unnecessary trips.
“This is part of their strategy to cover up for their lack of clear-cut debates on national interest to engage the ruling party in constructive criticisms that would better the lives of Nigerians.
“But the character of their mental indolence is understood. They are disappointed to see President Buhari embarking on trips to woo foreign investors to the country like what he did in Sochi, Russia, last week. We invite more cerebral Nigerians to be the judge here by ascertaining whether opposition’s latest outburst is not a reflection of their own mental unfitness.
The PSC further said it amounts to crying wolf where there is none for the opposition to claim that Buhari’s trip to the UK amounts to absconding from home instead of tackling the rising insecurity and other challenges that he swore to tackle.
Ibrahim continued: “PDP and their spin doctors should come up with serious issues to engage the government of the day on. They should dwell on concrete facts instead of spreading fake news on the president’s trips. Nigerians are happy that their president is attracting a lot of investments and developmental projects to Nigeria through his foreign engagements.
“Once again, we urge well-meaning Nigerians to remain steadfast and be rest assured that President Buhari will return from his UK vacation to continue the great work his administration is doing to revive our economy, the power sector, agriculture, roads and tackle corruption head on”.
