SAHARA REPORTERS
The ruling All Progressives Congress has blasted the Labour Party candidate in the last presidential election.
This position was communicated by the party in a press statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Felix Morka.
In the statement, the ruling party accused the former Anambra governor of showcasing “his obsessive devotion to self-promotion against the best interest of Nigeria”’
It also accused Obi of misinforming Nigerians.
It said, “Mr. Obi’s latest statement on the country’s economic situation is an admixture of half truths, blatant distortions and misinformation calculated to mobilize outrage against the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“His warped conclusion that Nigeria’s economic crisis was caused by nine years of APC-led administration is a highly revisionist, dishonest, distorted and deliberately misleading assessment of the country’s economic trajectory in the last decade.”
APC accused Obi of lying “that no efforts were being made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to tackle poverty and unemployment in the country”.
It said, “The facts tell a far more complex and different story. The country’s economic decline began under the watch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with GDP growth plummeting from 7.98% in 2010 to 2.79% in 2015.
“And since 2015, the global oil price crash, geopolitical tensions, climate change, global COVID pandemic and rising population have all taken a toll on Nigeria’s economy that is almost entirely dependent on drastically reduced oil export earnings.
“The growth recorded during the PDP years was due entirely to high price of crude oil and increased government spending that it supported.
“It is noteworthy that between 2007 and 2014, Nigeria earned $531.2 billion under the PDP, compared to $287.8 billion under APC between 2015 and 2022.”
The party blamed the PDP failing to develop Nigeria, saying despite the huge revenues available to it, “successive PDP administrations neglected to address underlying structural challenges and distortions in the economy leaving the country vulnerable to economic shocks and volatility”.
It said, “Had the PDP undertaken a sustained programme of economic reform as President Tinubu is currently engaged, Nigeria’s economic situation would be far better than it is today.
“But in his selfish political desperation, Obi will never acknowledge the complexity of the causation of our economic challenges but would rather attempt to scapegoat the APC administration for all of the country’s economic ills while turning a blind eye to the bold and thoughtful policy interventions of President Tinubu’s administration.”
The party claimed that the country has witnessed development under Tinubu.
It said, “Quite contrary to Obi’s jaundiced and gloomy analysis, in the last one year alone, the country has attracted over $20 billion into the economy, aside recording an all-time high N6.52 trillion trade surplus in the first quarter of 2024 marking a positive shift from a long history of trade deficits.
“Despite clearing the backlog of the foreign exchange debts owed foreign airlines and other economic actors by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the nation’s foreign reserves have continued to expand, hitting upwards of $34 billion, the highest in recent times. Capital inflow into the country increased by 66.27 percent this year alone.”
“Mr. Obi must know that inflaming passion and mobilizing outrage through false and manipulative narratives are not legitimate tools of opposition politics,” the APC said.
“Expecting President Tinubu to accomplish total transformation of Nigeria in one year, a feat he failed miserably to accomplish in eight years as Governor of Anambra state, is the height of disgraceful hypocrisy.”
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN SAHARA REPORTERS
