President Muhammadu Buhari’s management of the nation’s economy has pitched his party, the All Progressives Congress against the opposition party, People’s Democratic Party with both parties going for each other’s jugular.
The APC who described the past adminstration as the “looters of yesterday” as being responsible for the myraid of problems facing the present government and inability to fulfil some electoral promises.
In a statement yesterday, APC claimed that there would have been more than enough money to deliver on its campaign promises, including feeding school children and paying N5,000 each to the 50 million most vulnerable Nigerians, if the treasury had not been emptied by the past administration.
While providing new instances of what it described as “insane looting” of the treasury by some officials of the Jonathan administration, the ruling party said not until the corruption mess that characterised the administration is cleaned up, Nigeria would not be able to actualise its potential.
APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said those who would rather give comfort to the looters by dismissing the media exposure of looting as mere hell-raising should realise that no sane person can be silent in the face of what is unfolding as the worst cases of brazen stealing of public funds in Nigeria’s history.
“On August 16, 2015, we listed some instances of the breath-taking looting of the treasury by some officials of the immediate past administration. Today, we bring three more heart-rending cases to the attention of Nigerians. We will not relent until closure has been brought to this issue.
“A mind-shattering $2.2 billion arms scandal, a $6.9 million fraud by the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President Jonathan, committed under the guise of buying three mobile stages for the president and a $2.5 billion scam involving the rent of house boats.
“While those charged with handling these cases are finalising the details of bringing the suspects to justice, our immediate concern is the attempt by the PDP, under whose umbrella the looting took place, to blame the Buhari administration for the mess and then infer that things have been worse in Nigeria in the past three months under the APC-led federal government than in the 16 years under the PDP. This is totally provocative, shameless and uncharitable,” APC said.
Despite the discovery of cases of corruption under the Jonathan administration on a daily basis, the party assured Nigerians of better days ahead, as all its campaign promises would be kept because of the commitment and determination of the president not only to clean the Augean stable but also ensure purposeful governance for the benefit of all Nigerians.
APC canvassed the need to work meticulously to recover the looted funds and facilitate the delivery of good governance that would manifest in abundant jobs, a strong economy and improved welfare and security for Nigerians.
It said while the PDP, ever steeped in the pursuit of lies, presents the recently released data on job creation and economic growth as “clear signals” that President Buhari is failing Nigerians, the disgraced party mischievously omitted the fact that those numbers are basically a manifestation of the disastrous final days of President Jonathan’s failed economic policies.
“The PDP omitted the fact that these numbers measure job creation and economic growth for the second quarter of 2015, which covers April to June 2015, a period in which President Jonathan was in office for 2 months while President Buhari was only just settling in to discover even more of the mess left for him to clear.
“Since the PDP has become insular to global events, the APC will also like to educate the party that every country in the world is struggling to adjust to the effects of a global downturn at the moment.
“Only very few countries, if any, are growing as fast as they did, in say two years ago. From China, India, Russia, South Africa, to Ghana, Malaysia and Brazil, every country is feeling the effects of a sustained slowdown in global growth.
“The APC will also like to categorically state that it supports the policies of the CBN in its quest to ensure greater transparency in the forex market and eliminate currency substitution in our economy.
“The CBN’s policy to stop cash deposits of foreign currency is in line with global best practices and has led to a drastic reduction in the BDC exchange rate for the dollar,” the party said.
However, the PDP in an immediate riposte decried what it described as the deliberate resort to diversionary blackmail and overused excuses by the Buhari-led APC government to shy away from providing answers to the salient issue of unprecedented damage it has done to the nation’s economy in its 90 days in office.
PDP said rather than hide their heads in shame for poor performance in the last 90 days that has resulted in the sudden economic retrogression, the worst ever experienced by the nation, the APC and presidency have continued to grope and look for excuses.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday, said discerning minds were appalled that instead of providing answers to issues of economic retrogression, the presidency and APC resorted to wild allegations and insults in an attempt to cover their ineptitude and divert attention from their list of bogus promises which they have no intention to fulfill.
“We challenge the APC and presidency to be honest enough to respond to issues instead of resorting to propaganda. Is the so-called mess clearing an answer for the adamant stance of the APC and President Buhari in running a government without a cabinet and precise fiscal policy direction, a strange totalitarian approach that has taken a serious toll on the economy and the polity in general?
“Is it an answer to the resort to constitutional violations, abuse of financial regulations, halting of development projects and the pervading uncertainty that resulted in the regression of domestic and foreign direct investments with attendant avoidable losses to Nigerians?
“Are we not already experiencing the consequences of abuse of rules such as the foisting of foreign exchange transaction restrictions in violation of the Foreign Exchange Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, otherwise known as Decree No. 17 of 1995?
“What is the APC-led government’s answer to the report by Fitch, which alerted that Nigerian banks and other businesses in the sector are now at risk following the economic slowdown occasioned by the incompetence of the Buhari-led APC government?
“Why have the government and the APC refused to provide answers to the recent depletion of funds inherited from the previous administration without recourse to appropriate statutory arms of government, while no corresponding improvement has been witnessed in the economy?
“We challenge this administration to present to Nigerians a score card of investments it has made in any critical sector of the economy in the last 90 days. What investment has the Buhari administration made in power, health, education, the railways or petroleum sectors in the last 90 days, to warrant its posturing on achievements?” PDP asked.