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By Myke Agunwa
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lamented that Nigerians have gone through hell under President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the past two years.
The party tasks President Tinubu to urgently address the issue of insecurity, reverse all economically suffocating policies and check the wholesale corruption, greed, unbridled profligacy, reckless misdirection of resources, arrogance in failure and totalitarian tendencies in his administration, which has shown itself as anti-people and impervious to the suffering of Nigerians.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba in a statement on Wednesday to mark the two-year anniversary of the present administration, described it as nightmarish filled with hunger, poverty and insecurity.
“As a Party, we restate our position that any government that cares for the wellbeing of the people and has an idea of macro-economic policy management would have reckoned that an abrupt increase in petrol price and devaluation of the Naira as executed by the Tinubu administration would cripple the productive sector, inflame high costs, crash millions of businesses, trigger mass job loss, escalate poverty, hunger, hardship, insecurity and hopelessness across the country.
“With the Naira which exchanged for N167 to a US Dollar under the PDP administration now exchanging for over N1,600; petrol which sold for N87 per liter under the PDP now selling for over N1,000 per liter; with nearly 40% inflation rate, over 42% youth unemployment rate, acute food shortage, frightening rise in criminality and social vices, the situation in Nigeria has become so unbearable that many talented citizens are now fleeing the country with others resorting to suicide to escape the agonies inflicted by the APC government.
“More troubling is that from May 2023 when President Tinubu took office, more than 600,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists and bandits who are emboldened by the APC administration’s apparent negligence and failure to ensure the safety and security of the nation and her citizens”.
The opposition part lamented that insecurity, comatose infrastructure and economic uncertainties have worsened in the last two years, leaving Nigeria in droves to neighboring countries where governments are alive to their responsibilities.
“Unfortunately, instead of listening to our Party and other well-meaning Nigerians, the Tinubu administration resorted to multiple taxes, exploitative charges and reckless foreign borrowing accumulating to N182.91 trillion (with the latest request of a fresh $24.14 billion (N38.24tn) with no corresponding development project or programme that benefits the people” he said.
The opposition party said that while Nigerians suffer, the APC is obsessed with turning the country into a one-Party state, while frittering the nation’s scarce resources for acquisition of jets, pricey yacht, luxury mansions, expensive foreign trips and lavish lifestyle to the chagrin of other citizens.
The PDP counselled President Tinubu to recognize that Nigerians are seriously hurting. “Mr. President, in his second-year anniversary address, should therefore avoid the usual APC’s resort to rhetoric and false performance claims that are at variance with the realities of life in Nigeria.
“Mr. President should take advantage of the remaining two years of his administration to redeem his image by addressing the issue of insecurity, review all suffocating policies to bring down the price of petroleum products and shore up the value of the Naira while engaging more skillful hands to manage the nation’s economy”.
The Party urged Nigerians not to give up hope but continue to rally on the platform of the PDP in preparation to vote out the APC and its woes in 2027.