APC Performance Claim Is Joke Of The Year, Says PDP

The People’s Democratic Party has dismissed the All Progressives Congress-led federal government’s performance claims announced by the Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed on Thursday as the joke of the year.

Mohammed had announced 100 different achievements across sectors made by the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari since 2015.

This is despite allegations that the government has taken Nigeria far backwards even as Arewa youths on Wednesday called on the party to return Nigeria to pre-2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan left the government.

Buhari critics have raised concern about the spate of Kidnapping, killings and rising cases of terrorism with almost 5000 Nigerians killed in six months, according to reports.

A statement signed on Thursday night by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Debo Ologunagba, titled ‘FG’s 2021 performance claims, a litany of lies’, noted that “The Performance claim by the APC government can only be a product of delusions of grandeur; a joke of the year, as the word on the street where the real Nigerians are is completely at variance with the fabricated lies and imaginary performance indices contained in the report.”

The PDP further noted that instead of facing reality, the APC is on a mission of “a self-confessed terrorism apologist, is celebrating the mass killings currently going on in our country by engaging in self-praise in the face of failure while terrorists continue to ravage our nation.”

While the Nigerian economy remained enviable with a low debt service ratio with regards to gross domestic product and a $7 billion debt as at 2014, that has ballooned to almost $40 billion alone, and an economy that has experienced two recessions.

Latest reports say the country’s debt will rise to $60 billion in 2023 with the government’s borrowing plan.

Also, unemployment is at an all time high of over 30% with a continuous contraction of Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, due to insecurity.

The PDP noted the failure of the government in that regards saying, “The APC government had become so addicted to the falsehood that it had forgotten that Nigerians are aware that the PDP government handed over a $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th globally) and a diversified economy to the APC in 2015.

“Today, our nation has become the poverty capital of the world due to the mismanagement, corruption and recklessness of the APC government.”

Nigeria was described as the poverty capital of the world in 2018 by the Brookings Institution in the US, knocking off India, a country with a population of over 1.2 billion people, from the perch.

According to the opposition party, Nigeria’s external debt in 2015 was $7.3bn. Under the APC government, the external debt has reached over $38bn and counting, with no corresponding investment in the economy or infrastructure.

“Today, the poverty rate in Nigeria is 71 per cent as against 32 per cent when the APC government took over in 2015,” the PDP said, pointing out that, “Between January and September 2021, over $1.8bn was expended on debt services, yet the APC government claims to have performed in 2021.

“It is self-evident that only the APC can claim to have performed in the face of life discounting experiences of the ordinary Nigerians.

“The APC government has nothing to say to the fact that under its watch, the naira has collapsed from N198 to a dollar handed over to it in 2015 to over N500 today; that the pump price of fuel has risen from N87 per litre in 2015 to N165 per litre today; that unemployment has risen from 7.3 per cent in 2015 to over 33 per cent today and that price of food items have so skyrocketed that millions of Nigerian families are no longer able to afford their daily meals and other necessities of life.”

The PDP also accused Buhari’s government of looting over N25 trillion from various government agencies without trace, saying, “It also explains why the APC government has failed to prosecute its officials and APC leaders openly indicted for corruption,” it added.

It also dismissed the performance the APC announced in the area of infrastructure, challenging the party to name one project it started and concluded.

It accused the APC of playing to the gallery despite knowing the pains it has “inflicted on Nigerians”, and extensive reports and evidence to prove it has failed since 2015.