The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned the National Caretaker
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Yobe state governor
Mai Mala Buni, to stop sending impostors and charlatans in his party to
insult PDP state governors and other patriotic leaders just to divert
attention from the failures and problems of his party.
According to a statement signed by the Party Spokesman, Mr. Kola
Ologbondiyan, “The PDP counsels Governor Buni to design a more
constructive way of containing the manifest failures of APC government
at the federal and state levels instead of this jealous act of seeking
to use nonentities to attempt to drag down PDP performing governors and
other well-meaning Nigerians.
“It is indisputable that governors elected on the platform of the PDP
have performed and are performing better, by all standards, than their
counterparts in the APC.
“Nigerians across the country already know that the standard of living,
infrastructural development, wealth creation, employment opportunities
as well as growth in critical sectors including aviation, education,
health, transportation power, energy, manufacturing, commerce are better
in PDP states.
“Of course, no APC governor can point to any development project that
can compete with the achievements of any of our governors in any sector
of life.
“Such feat is not by accident but by sheer ingenuity, hard work and
accountability being exhibited by our governors in line with the
manifesto of the PDP.
“Furthermore, it is ludicrous that rather than advising President
Muhammadu Buhari and his government to rescind the unjustified increase
in fuel price and withdraw the morbid declaration that fuel price ought
not to be cheaper in Nigeria than Saudi Arabia, the APC is further
insulting Nigerians by bandying unsubstantiated oil subsidy figures, to
defend their atrocious policy.
“In case the APC is not aware, it is instructive to remind them that
their party and government has fallen too low in the esteem of Nigerians
for it to seek a rebranding through impostors as spokespersons, to
funnel lies, deception and distortions of facts in a fresh attempt to
beguile Nigerians.
“It is incontrovertible that contrary to the lies of APC impostors,
between 2006 and 2013, successive PDP administrations, effectively
managed the resources of our nation and grew our economy to become one
of the fastest-growing in the world as recorded by Fitch and the IMF.
“Perhaps the APC should be reminded that within this period, the PDP
achieved the historical debt relief (of about $18 billion), which freed
Nigeria from the suffocating shackles of huge external borrowings of the
past.
“It is a fact that during this period, the PDP administrations reduced
our nation’s budget deficits by 72%, stabilized our currency and overall
economy to achieve the doubling of our GDP within four years from
$55.65bn in 2003 to $114.36bn in 2006, as acknowledged by IMF database.
“This is in addition to improving our FDI from less than $700 million
per annum in 1999, to $4.3 billion by 2007, which earned Nigeria a BB
credit rating by Fitch.
“It is incontrovertible that life was better in our country under the
PDP and that the purchasing power of Nigerians, in general, experienced
its highest in our contemporary history under the PDP.
“Our party, therefore, counsels the APC to rather advise President
Buhari to wake up to the demands of governance by ending the corruption
in his oil revenue management, reduce the costs of fuel price and rejig
his security and economic teams, instead of this resort to diversionary
tactics.”