Read the press statement below....
1. We have read comments made by the National Publicity Secretary of
the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), Alhaji Bolaji Ojo-Abdullahi,
Mallam Garba Shehu, Special Assistant to the President on Media, and
other senior members of the Ruling Party such as former Governor, Segun
Oni and Dr. Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of the Voice of
Nigeria where they attempted to rubbish the comments made by former
President Goodluck Jonathan that his Administration performed well
during his term in office.
2. It is our firm belief that these statements were borne out of
ignorance, lacking in depth and are devoid of the Sort of critical
thinking that one would expect from highly placed government officials.
However, these officials seem bent on continuing what has become an
official position of the Ruling Party to reduce commentary on public
issues, and indeed the art of governance to comedy.
3. It is shameful and embarrassing that having been in power for two
and a half years, the Ruling Party is unable to point to cogent,
convincing and data driven achievements. Instead, it has spent the bulk
of its time designing and implementing a communication strategy around
massive propaganda, half truths and outright falsehood in an attempt to
continually deceive the Nigerian people.
4. For the sake of emphasis, we reiterate our position that the
Administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan performed well
during its term in office. There are no indices anywhere in Nigeria, or
indeed in the world, by which the Administration of President Muhammadu
Buhari can be measured as performing better than any PDP administration
since 1999.
5. For the avoidance of doubt, some of the achievements of our Party while in power include:
(a) As at May 29, 2015, Nigeria was the Largest Economy in Africa
valued at over $500billion. A combination of the incoherent policies and
incompetence of the Ruling Party have significantly shrunk the size of
the Nigerian Economy since the Inception of the Current Administration.
(b) As at May 29, 2015, Nigeria was the No, 1 Destination for Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa. Up to that point, investors
responded to the policies designed and implemented by the Jonathan
Administration by investing billions of Dollars in the Nigerian Economy.
However, since the Inauguration of the Buhari Administration,
investors have voted with their feet having been discouraged by the
inchoate and incoherent policies being implemented by the APC led
Federal Government.
(c) The Jonathan Administration maintained a 'Single Digit Inflation
Rate' for several years. Inflation stood at 9.6% at the Inception of the
Buhari Administration. The incompetence of the Current Economic
Management Team has resulted in inflation rising as high as 18.72% in
January 2017 before settling at 16.1% in July 2017. This had led to the
Skyrocketing of the Price of goods, services and food items thereby
making staples unaffordable to millions of Nigerians.
It is not a coincidence that the last time Nigerians had to deal with
the Current level of widespread hunger and lack was when President
Muhammadu Buhari held sway as military Head of State between 1984 and
1985.
(d) The APC led Federal Government inherited an economy that had
grown at an average of 7% per annum for the previous 10 years. Indeed,
when President Buhari spoke at the Chatham House in February 2015, he
admitted that the Nigerian economy had experienced growth for several
years. At the time, several global economic experts projected Nigeria to
be among the top 7 growing economies in the world in 2016.
However, the APC led Federal Government has managed to lead the
Nation to 6 consecutive quarters of economic recession without a
coherent, cogent strategy to bring our economy out of the woods.
(e) The Jonathan Administration is widely acclaimed for conducting
free, fair and credible elections. Since the Inception of the Current
Administration, Nigerians have witnessed widespread and blatant
manipulation of the electoral process to suit the whim of the Ruling
Party. Easy examples can be found in the refusal to postpone the Ondo
State Gubernatorial Election even though valid reasons existed that
warranted its postponement; and the postponement of the Edo State
Gubernatorial Election for no justifiable reason when it became obvious
that the Ruling Party was going to lose that election to enable it
manipulate the process. Since the Inception of this Administration, the
Phenomenon of "inconclusive elections" has become a regular feature of
our electoral system.
(f) The Jonathan Administration had implemented an agricultural
sector transformation programme that ensured a reduction of the National
Food Import Bill by encouraging increased local production of staple
food items. An example of the Results of this policy was the Reduction
of the Price of a bag of rice from N14,000 per bag in 2012 to N8, 500 in
2014. The Price of a bag of rice currently stands at N18, 000 having
peaked at N22,000 per bag in 2016.
The success of this programme ensured that the Massive flooding which
hit many farming communities in the food production belts of the
Country in 2012 did not result in famine and a radical increase in the
costs of staple food items.
(g) The Jonathan Administration took an institutional approach to
tackling corruption in the Country. In this wise, the Administration
designed several technological tools to tackle corruption. These
include:
• Treasury Savings Account (TSA)
• Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS)
• Integrated Payroll & Personnel Information System (IPPIS)
When added to other institutional anti-corruption tools like
the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission
(ICPC), our Party instituted the existing institutional framework with
which to fight corruption.
It is imperative to point out that, despite being in charge of the
Executive and possessing a majority in both houses of the National
Assembly, the Ruling Party has failed to add anything to or strengthen
the Anti-corruption framework and infrastructure of the Country.
It is also incumbent on us to point out that the Current
Administration has taken a pedestrian approach to fighting corruption by
engaging in media trials rather than actively prosecuting cases in
court. This approach has had an adverse effect on the Country with the
Egmont Group, an international financial intelligence sharing
anti-corruption body, using the Nigerian prosecution agencies penchant
for sharing sensitive information with the Media as a basis for
Nigeria’s suspension from the Group.
6. The list of achievements of the Jonathan Administration, and
indeed past PDP administrations, are too numerous to mention and
completely dwarf the wasted years of APC’s governance.
7. It is important to note that several senior members of APC who
constantly feel the need to deride and denigrate our Party using
falsehoods as a foundation were once members of our Party. It is
important to point out, for instance, that Alhaji Bolaji Ojo-Abdullahi
was a Minister under the Jonathan Administration, Chief Segun Oni was
also a former member of our Party on whose platform he rose to become
Governor of Ekiti State.
Having served in such offices, it does not lie in the mouth of such
men to state that PDP failed Nigerians. If these men, and others of
their ilk find it so convenient to deny their past, we wonder what they
will say about the Present in the near future.
8. It is necessary to inform the Ruling Party that Nigerians are
suffering under the Weight of the Anti-people policies they have been
forced to live and do business under. As a result, the Ruling Party's
days at the helm of affairs are numbered. The professional propagandists
of the APC will realize too late that blaming the ills of the Country
on past administrations while doing nothing about them for four clear
years will not save them on the Day of Judgement. And the Day of
reckoning is very much at hand.
God bless Nigeria! God bless the PDP!!
4 comments:
Truely obvious
True talk
APC led federal government has brought hardship and hunger to our land. The worst of PDP rule is better than the best rule of APC.
Their achievements are really appreciable. They really cannot be denied as the people living there are in favour of their president and they believe in his achievements. I really appreciates their law about poor and hungers.
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