Lawan slams PDP over insurgency, 16 years of misrule

• Published date: 10 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Senate President Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday hit hard on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for its 16 years of maladministration.

He said the party's ineptitude allowed Boko Haram insurgency to fester.

Lawan, according to a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Ola Awoniyi, in Abuja, spoke at the Presidential Campaign Rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Damaturu, Yobe State.

Lawan said: 'PDP mismanaged and mal-administer Nigeria for 16 years.

'When Boko Haram started in the Northeast, in Borno State, the then leadership of PDP said it was not true.

'There was nothing like Boko Haram and Boko Haram blossomed. Boko Haram flourished and Boko Haram gained ground and took root.'

Addressing President Buhari, Lawan added: 'Your Excellency, Boko Haram caused maximum, devastating impacts in our lives here.

'Your Excellency, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa particularly, we were under a state of emergency for 18 months.

'For 18 months, the Federal Government then stopped our statutory allocations to our local governments.

'We suffered, our people suffered. No developmental projects going on at all until you came in 2015. That was the salvation moment.

'We are indeed very grateful to Almighty God that the APC, that platform and the people of Nigeria needed a change.

'They needed a leadership that will care. They needed a leadership that will not segregate and that leadership is your leadership.

'During that time, even the ecological fund or stabilisation account...