APC accuses Jonathan of handing over a distressed nation

FUEL scarcity and the kind of epileptic power supply probably worse than ever, as well as heavy indebtedness, are what the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government would be handing over to President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), this Friday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said.

In a statement in Abuja, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, added that government has continued to contrive more crises without any effort to solve them. However, the party appealed to Nigerians not to lose hope, the present daunting challenges notwithstanding, assuring that the party is equal to the task.

“Never in the history of our country has any government handed over to another a more distressed country: No electricity, no fuel, workers are on strike, billions are owed to state and federal workers, $60 billion are owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded,” the statement claimed.

“Today, Nigerians are roaming the streets, jerry cans in hand, searching for everything – from kerosene to fuel, to diesel to power their homes, keep their vehicles on the road and their businesses going. They are paying as much as N300 per litre for fuel, if at all they get it. Yet, the government is not saying a word about the situation.”

According to the party, “Jonathan-led government is not interested in how to end the fuel scarcity that has paralysed the socio-economic lives of Nigerians, it is not interested in how to raise electricity production from its unprecedentedly-low level of 1,327mw, it is not doing anything to end the strike by blue and while collar oil workers, or to stop the impending one.

“It does not care how workers in 18 states of the federation, who are owed a total of N300 billion in salaries under its watch, or federal workers who are owed N400 billion, will be paid. Yet, the government is running a budget of N1 trillion deficit.

“It has deliberately stopped meeting its obligations to oil marketers, which is now around N200 billion, hence no one is lifting petroleum products anymore. If the current energy crisis is not solved soonest, the telecommunications sector could even be grounded in a matter of days, as service providers will have neither electricity nor fuel to power their base stations.