SIP Fund: PDP still suffering from masses rejection syndrome – group

The group was reacting to claims by the PDP that the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) of President Muhammadu Buhari amounted to vote buying.

According to a statement signed by its national president, Itodo Gideon, the group said a situation where the PDP is angry that President Buhari’s government intervened to lift people out of the poverty that its 16 years of lootocracy plunged citizens into is simply unacceptable.

He said only a party that has lost touch will reality will claim that SIP, Sure-P, TradeMoni and other schemes that directly put money in the pockets of Nigerians are meant to induce people for the reelection of President Buhari.

He said, “these programmes are in reality the foundation to building a system of economic safety nets for the vulnerable as practiced in other countries.

“PDP had almost two decades to introduce programmes that positively impact the lives of Nigerians but threw away the opportunity when those elected on its platform rather pocketed the commonwealth and shared the remaining crumbs to their friends and associates.

“One would have expected that they will appreciate the gains of what the All Progressives Congress (APC) government has done and come up with an improved proposal to outshine it instead of bellyaching.”

According to Gideon, President Buhari should rather be commended for implementing this social intervention simultaneously with massive investment in infrastructure that was hitherto neglect to cater to the kleptomaniac bend of the PDP.

According to him, It is most unfortunate that instead of offering apologies to Nigerians for their serial failures while in office, the PDP is rather daydreaming about how they could have diverted the money being used for the Social Intervention Programme into their personal accounts.

He said PDP’s pain at its looming defeat is understandable because the kind of failure it has to its credit takes a political party 50 years of handwork to recover from and that is only when it is contrite enough to stop insulting the populace by condemning programmes meant to improve their lot. Its current illusion is therefore not necessary as it will only further isolate it from the people with the potential to deny Nigerians of a virile opposition.