APC lacks capacity to create, manage wealth, says PDP

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said yesterday that it has noted the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government’s “deliberate resort to diversionary blackmail and overused excuses” to dodge providing answers to the issue of its damage to the economy in its 90 days in office.

Rather than hide their heads in shame over poor performance, “which has resulted in the sudden economic retrogression, the worst ever experienced by the nation,” the party said, the APC and Presidency continue to grope and look for excuses.

However, the Presidency has advised the PDP to stop its “pathetic” efforts to play down President Buhari’s achievements in his first 100 days in office and bury its head in shame for subjecting Nigeria to the worst economic plunder through corruption.

Reacting to the PDP’ statement on the economy going down, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the economy was gasping for breath under the “egregiously corrupt PDP administration” and the country witnessing an acceleration of poverty, which united citizens for change.

According to Shehu, it is ridiculous for any sane government to artificially rebase the economy and claim to transform Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa as the PDP administration did. He said the former ruling party was artificially manipulating statistics to create the illusion of impressive economic performance.

Shehu said that Nigerians no longer face exploitation at filling stations because the government is taking punitive measures against fraudulent marketers, just as queues have disappeared while the naira is enjoying favourable exchange rate.

Similarly, Buhari has successfully blocked leakages and other avenues for corruption, which the PDP administration lacked the will or desire do.

In a statement yesterday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said that discerning minds were appalled that the Presidency and the APC had 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.

“The PDP has severally expressed its support for a holistic fight against corruption and we have challenged the Federal Government to investigate and prosecute all corrupt persons irrespective of ethnic and political affiliations,” it said.

“We are therefore appalled that instead of getting serious with the challenges of governance, the APC is bent on inventing excuse for its crass incompetence to create and manage wealth, to the detriment of the nation.

“We challenge the APC and the 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 have taken 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 retarding of domestic and foreign direct investments, with attendant avoidable losses to Nigerians?