The All Progressives Congress (APC), again at the weekend pointed fingers of scorn at the erstwhile ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the poor state of the economy.
The ruling party accused the main opposition party of running the country economy aground through oil subsidy scam, award of fake contracts to cronies and diversion of public fund meant to procure arms to fight insurgents to private accounts.
In the statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Lanre Isa-Onilu the APC blamed certain players in the private sector for collaborating with top chieftains of the PDP to fleece the public treasury.
It, however, maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari has been struggling to create jobs in the last four years, repatriate stolen funds, divert the economy from its present mono-cultural status and secure it from the threats of insurgency.
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The statement read in part: ”The All Progressives Congress (APC) admits that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has put a lot of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members out of their illegitimate job of looting the country, not the fictitious 40 million Nigerians being bandied by the PDP.
”For 16 years, several leaders of the PDP were having a bazaar over our commonwealth, in their reckless and senseless race to produce world’s highest number of billionaires whose only enterprise was stealing from the public purse.
”During this period of calamitous heist, thousands of PDP members also held Nigeria by the throat, in an unpatriotic race to help themselves to our collective resources. The entire public sector in collaboration with willing players from the private sector was neck-deep in fleecing the treasury.
”At a period of surplus, when crude oil price rose to as much as $140, successive PDP governments supervised a massive scrambling for cheap money. Alongside the fuel subsidy racket, diversion of counter-insurgency funds to PDP leaders and cronies, they awarded roads, railways, power plants, airport terminals, dredging of waterways, bridges, and many other projects that Nigeria badly needed, yet delivered nothing. The projects were mere decoy and conduits for looting the treasury. With billions of dollars stolen, the APC government inherited a decrepit country from PDP.
”In the last five years, the President Buhari-led APC government has not only been putting these looters out of jobs, we are relentlessly working to recover our country’s stolen resources from them. We are glad that Nigerians are seeing positive results of the current administration’s efforts. Hundreds of looters are being prosecuted, assets illegally acquired and unexplainable wealth are being recovered, while a number of them are spending time in jail. Many more will be on their way to jail soon. A number of them are on the run and we are collaborating with the international community to bring them to justice.
”Meanwhile, as we put the PDP looters out of jobs, we are creating the environment and other support structures for creating legitimate jobs. The outcomes are evident in the construction, manufacturing and agricultural sectors despite the fact that the country is earning far less than what was earned under the PDP.
”Jobs are being created in many productive sectors. Our security agencies are employing more personnel to create jobs and to bolster their capacity to secure lives and property. The year 2020 promises much more in massive infrastructure, solid minerals, oil and gas, and industrialisation. ”
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