Buhari-led Government Completely Rudderless With Economy – PDP

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government has been completely rudderless regarding the economy.

This is as it also said that the incompetence and absence of a clear policy for the economy by the APC government is fast leading the nation into the woods of insolvency, which was recently confirmed by NNPC’s confession that it would not be able to make remittances to FAAC for the month of April as well as the confusing response of government regarding the appropriate use of Ways and Means (printing money) to address our mounting economic challenges.

The PDP said that it remembered that prior to the emergence of the Buhari administration, Nigeria’s debt profile stood at less than $9.4 billion, (N1.8 trillion) having benefitted from the efforts of a previous PDP administration led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for a debt relief of over $18 billion.

National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who stated these at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, noted that presently, Nigeria’s debt burden has since risen to N32.9 trillion.

Secondus stressed that it is curious that the only economic management tool known by the Buhari administration is just mind-boggling borrowing, adding that this includes borrowing for recurrent expenditure as well as for consumption.

The PDP National Chairman further said; “It is also very clear that despite the whimsical closure and reopening of borders, the supposed consumption of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) alone has increased from about 30 million litres in 2015 to over 60 million litres even when the production capacity of the economy has seriously diminished.

“Many companies and businesses have dumped Nigeria for neighbouring countries because of an apparent inclement operational environment. Therefore, your guess is as good as ours as to whether the subsidy is for us, the citizens, or for the pockets of privileged few in government.

“Further source of worry is the exchange rate that was at N180 to a dollar in 2014, now stands at nearly N500 to a dollar contrary to the APC’s propaganda-laden promise of matching a dollar to one naira.

“Inflation has been on the rise. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the consumer price index, which measures inflation increased, stood at  18.17 per cent (year-on-year) in March 2021. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world; and while one of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is to end extreme poverty by 2050, APC has continued to lead the nation in the opposite direction.

“With over 86.9 million citizens living in extreme poverty, Nigeria overtook India as the poverty of the world in 2018, according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Nigeria’s corruption rating has been consistently worse under the APC-led administration.

“These and more clearly shows that the APC-led government has left the economy more than 100 per cent worse than they met it,” Secondus said.