The Peoples Democratic Party has accused President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of lacking economic direction. It therefore urged the All Progressives Congress’ administration to pay urgent attention to the management of the nation’s economy. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said this in a statement in Abuja on Monday. In his words:
“Whereas the PDP is in full support of the President’s efforts in tackling corruption and insurgency, the party is however concerned about the grave economic situation we now face, as well as indices from global economic watchers, which this administration has failed to give deserving attention, despite its predictable negative impact.”
This, the PDP said, was due to lack of a clear-cut fiscal policy direction and an economic team to deal with the domestic and global challenges associated with a developing economy. Metuh said as a responsible party, it was the duty of the PDP to draw the President’s attention to the fact that under the prevailing circumstances, the nation was heading to economic doldrums. He said:
“Mr. President, this is no longer about politics and partisanship. It is about the economy of our dear nation and the well-being of the Nigerian citizens. Recall that we have severally in the past, drawn attention to official reports showing that the unemployment situation in the country as well as inflation rate are growing at frightening dimensions, let alone the continued decline in domestic and direct foreign investments, all due to uncertainty created by the lack of economic direction of the APC-led administration.”
“The situation has become even of utmost concern following the failure of this administration to articulate any interventionist policy at this critical moment, when credible global economic monitors have continued to predict that oil price may fall to as low as $20 per barrel.
“It is worrisome that whilst other countries are taking deliberate steps to enhance their investment profiles and hedge their economies at this time, the APC-led Federal Government has done nothing in that direction, but has centered on partisan politics and a witch-hunt of perceived opponents, while the economy remains vulnerable and unattended to.
“We caution strongly that this approach to governance is not healthy for our nation. Indeed, the time has come for Mr. President to end the apparent lethargy in his administration and take urgent step to set up a crack economic team of experts to immediately swing into action and salvage the situation by opening up all economic outlets, which have been stagnated in the last four months.”
In managing this economy, Metuh urged the President, as the father of the nation, to look beyond partisan politics and ensure that the policy framework and populist economic projects laid by the PDP administration, especially in the non-oil sectors were not dumped. He said:
“In this regard therefore, we wish to draw attention to various agricultural projects and programmes established by the PDP, especially in the northern states, such as various dams and irrigation projects, the e-wallet financial empowerment system to farmers associated to the over two million direct farm jobs, as well as the Green Belt project under the Presidential Initiative on Afforestation in Kano and 10 other northern states, all in line with the PDP’s agenda to return the region as the food basket of the nation.”
But the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described the PDP’s statement on the nation’s economy as part of the opposition’s ploy to distract the Buhari administration from its onerous task of putting the nation on a sound footing. Mohammed in a statement noted that the PDP’s statement was a litany of delusional self praise, rather than a genuine concern about the nation’s well being.
‘’The question the PDP should ask itself is that if it had laid a solid foundation for the economy in its 16 years in charge, could such a foundation have given way in just three months of a new administration? If the PDP had been as fantastic as its statement had portrayed, it would still be the ruling, rather than the opposition party that it is now.”
‘’It is therefore important for the PDP to concentrate its attention on remaking its tattered image rather than continuing to act as a desperate attention-seeking opposition,’’ Mohammed said.