Buhari is killing national economy with heavy loans —Dayo Adeyeye, PDP National Publicity Secretary

National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in this interview by BOLA BADMUS, speaks on issues of national interest, declaring that the economy is dying under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration due to incessant recourse to loans.

 

As the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), what can say about the situation of things in the country in the last two years?

The situation in the last two years is that Nigeria has never had it so bad; that’s what I would say to sum it up. Nigeria has slipped from being the largest economy in Africa into becoming an irrelevant economy in the continent, politically we are in turmoil. In term of security, the country is in serious danger and when it comes to the typical issue of fighting corruption and other vices by the government agents, the situation has never been worse. If we are to analyse critically, this government came into power on the three major platforms as they called it. They said they were going to tackle the issue of corruption, they were going to tackle the issue of insecurity and then they said they were going to address the problem of the economy.

On the issue of corruption, Nigerians have now seen what PDP has been saying all along that the anti-corruption fight is not more than a political tool to harass, intimidate, subjugate and suppress the opposition. It is not more than that; it is not a genuine fight against corruption because, under this government, corruption has reached monumental proportion and we are not afraid to say that. I said in my statement last week that the $25billion scandal rocking the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could have been an attempt to save money for the president for his presidential campaign and nobody has refuted it. But I suspect that they knew we are getting to the truth; that is the reality. Corruption stinks and when you say a fish is rotten, it starts from the head.

The anti-corruption fight of Mr President is dubious. Nigerians were deceived into believing that this president was incorruptible; that he was the one who was going to fight corruption, but I want to tell you that, like Senator Shehu Sani said, when the issue of corruption involves the All Progressives Congress (APC) and those in the president’s circle, it is treated with deodorants. When it is the opposition, it is treated with the insecticides. Corruption, in the definition of APC and its leadership, means a war against anybody who is opposed to their government. It does not mean a fight against abuse of power, against misappropriation of funds, embezzlement or whatever on the part of those who are currently serving in government and you can see it with the way those in government have been treated with kid gloves where the issue of corruption is concerned.

Then you come to the issue of Boko Haram. I want to say without any fear of contradiction that Boko Haram was technically defeated under PDP. I say it without any fear of contradiction in the sense that election took place in all the wards, in all of the local government areas as the states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno that were supposed to be completely taken over by Boko Haram in March of 2015 had elections conducted there without any incident anywhere. It meant too that the Boko Haram was technically defeated; they were already out and election period provides the greatest opportunity for insurgents to strike because that is the time when your security agents are fully stressed and when you are not paying attention. That is when they are very opportunistic; that is when they like to strike to disrupt the election, but election was never disrupted.

Now, it was the levity with which the matter was treated when Buhari came in that allowed Boko Haram to come back. He allowed a long period; he didn’t appoint ministers; the security agencies relaxed and that allowed Boko Haram to re-enter the country and begin their insurgency again and so we are still fighting that. The war that had been virtually concluded before PDP left government had been completely changed. They are still fighting that and they are beating their chest and giving themselves pass mark over that.

When you come to the issue of economy, the economy speaks for itself. The critical question to ask Nigerians is that, ‘is your life better now than it was two years ago?’ I am sure 99.9 per cent of Nigerians would say no and that things are bad. The situation is at record level; unemployment is at record level; production has declined so much so that Nigerians are now beginning to commit suicide in droves. So the economy has slipped from being No. 1 in Africa to being at no position as far as I am concerned. Everything is in disarray and they would tell you it is because of falling oil prices. Oil prices had started dropping, even to about $30per barrel more than one and a half years before former President Goodluck Jonathan left government. But it was being managed with series of policies that were working.

The point is that when this government came to power and it took it two years before coming out with a coherent economic policy, what do you expect? They just launched their economic policy after two years. That is why the economy is in a parlous state.

 

But the present administration has been blaming PDP for the current situation in the country…

I have told you that it is because they have nothing to do. We left the country as the biggest economy in Africa. They were not elected on the basis of blaming the past government. When you were campaigning, you said things were not good enough and that they would do better. But you came to government and you started complaining that things are bad, whereas you said you were going to do better. What better things have you done? They would have done better if they had left the economy the way they met it, but they sank the economy into a deep hole.

It is easy to be elected to blame. Oh, it is a simple task if your job is just to blame, even any market woman can always blame. They are not doing serious work. You know that the economy of the US had virtually collapsed before former President Barak Obama came into office and within two to three years, he fixed the economy. You remember the economic crisis of 2007, did Obama for one day blame the previous government? He did not because that was not what he was elected to do. He was elected to fix the economy and he did exactly that. The only thing APC now does is to blame and that would not take Nigeria anywhere.

 

Is PDP, as the major opposition party, doing enough to address the situation?

We can only do our job as opposition by articulating alternative policies and we have been saying it. We had even said that if only they had built on what Jonathan was doing-the economic policies that were on ground-Nigeria would not be where it is now. Don’t forget that this government is floating, the economy is floating. What we are seeing is based on loans, excessive loans obtained by this government. Don’t forget that the PDP government wiped off Nigeria’s debt completely under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and now the debts have tripled under President Muhammadu Buhari and whatever you see, the payment of salaries, is by pure loan from bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies. I am telling you, that is what is keeping this government going. They are not earning anything despite the fact that oil prices have started rising. The economy is not generating anything, salaries have not increased. They have increased taxation, making life difficult for people. Is that how to run the economy?

Now they want to take another $5.5billion loan, mortgaging the future of Nigeria, just to spend. If they don’t take that loan, by this time next year, naira will be exchanging for 1000 to a dollar. So that’s why they are borrowing. Nigeria cannot live on borrowing for ever and that’s what I want Nigerians to know. PDP will continue to draw attention to these things and we hope that by 2019, we would have sufficient points to make Nigerians return us to power and throw these people out because they are novice.

 

Who does PDP blame for losing power in 2015?

Well, elections can be lost for so many reasons. I don’t want to blame anybody. People can write books, opinions would vary from individual to individual on why we lost that election. It is an election we ought not to have lost, particularly to this kind of government. Well, Nigerians were deceived by the excessive propaganda of APC. They deceived a lot of Nigerians into thinking that a messiah was coming to change everything and to make Nigeria look like paradise, but we are now wiser.

 

What preparation is the party making ahead 2019 elections?

Now that we have put our crisis behind us, with the Supreme Court judgment, we are rebuilding the party to position it to take over power in 2019. And I want to tell you that a lot of people who left this party for APC are now coming back in droves. By this time next year, I hope our umbrella would be able to contain everybody as people would be coming to join PDP and we are going to win the election in 2019, hopefully by the grace of God.

 

Ahead of 2019, some people are already urging President Buhari to go for a second term in office. What is your take on this?

I would be happy because we need a soft target to defeat. We would see what he would use to campaign on; what would be the things he would point to Nigerians as his achievements? Well, it is okay, all well and good. I cannot dictate to APC who they should present; it is their decision to make. From our own point of view, we wouldn’t mind a soft target like Buhari at the election.

 

What do you say about your governorship ambition in Ekiti State?

My ambition is well and alive despite the antics of the governor who is there. He is trying to do some illegalities, but he is being made to realise that it is not going to work. There would be primary and I hope the primary would be free and fair. In a free and fair primary, I will defeat him hands down. That is the truth, by the grace of God. Go to Ekiti State and conduct an opinion poll. I know that unless the governor is on a mission to destroy the party that is when he would go on with this his suicidal mission. Otherwise, if he is not on a mission to destroy the party, he knows what to do.

But my campaign for the position of governor is well and live. I always recognise one fact, no matter what human efforts you make, it is God Almighty that ordains kings and I believe that I anchor my whole project on God with an absolute faith in Him. I do not fear any human being at all; we are mere pencil in the hand of God Almighty. If you don’t write well, He will use eraser to erase what you have done and throw you off. I trust God that we are going to succeed.