PDP TO APC - JONATHAN PERFORMED MORE THAN BUHARI

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) insisted on Tuesday that former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration performed better in the economic sector than the present regime.

In a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP said it is shameful and embarrassing that having been in power for two and a half years, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is unable to point to cogent, convincing and data driven achievements.

Jonathan had declared at the PDP convention on Saturday that his administration had a sound economic team, adding that it was able to keep inflation at a single digit, compared to the present 16 percent rate.

The former President’s statement was greeted with harsh criticism from several government officials, who retorted that Jonathan bequeathed a flattened economy to the administration as a result of unbridled corruption in virtually all sectors of the nation’s economy.

The party said: “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 Publicity 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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

According to the PDP, Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa, valued at $500 billion as of May 29, 2015, adding that a combination of incoherent policies and incompetence on the part of the government has significantly shrunk the size of the economy.

Describing the country as number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa as of May 29, 2015, the party said investors responded to the policies designed and implemented by the Jonathan administration by investing billions of Dollars in the Nigerian economy.

Continuing, the PDP said, “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.

“The Jonathan administration maintained a single digit inflation rate for several years. Inflation stood at 9.6 per cent 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 per cent in January 2017 before settling at 16.1 per cent in July 2017.

“This had led to the skyrocketing of the prices 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.

“The APC led Federal Government inherited an economy that had grown at an average of 7 per cent 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 seven growing economies in the world in 2016.

“However, the APC -led federal government has managed to lead the nation to six consecutive quarters of economic recession without a coherent, cogent strategy to bring our economy out of the woods.”

Source: The Nation Newspaper