Presidency, APC clash with PDP on economy, security

The Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday chided the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for criticising the Federal Government’s economic policies and handling of security.

The PDP knocked the government in unsparing comments made in a communiqué issued at the end of its 98th National Economic Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.

It was the first of such meetings held since last year’s elections.

While the PDP sought to pick holes in the performance record of the administration in the last 11 months, the APC said the PDP got it wrong, stressing that the APC is not like the PDP with a 16-year record of misrule.

Presidential Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga stressed that the President has repositioned the country for excellence.

Felix Morka, APC National Publicity Secretary, described the PDP NEC communique as a “hoax wailing of a shambolic party.”

To the PDP, President Bola Tinubu has not delivered on his promises on the economy, security, social welfare and democratisation of the polity

The communique read by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, reads: “NEC expresses concern over the ill-implemented policies of the insensitive APC administration, leading to worsening insecurity, harrowing economic hardship, soaring unemployment rate, high cost of food and other necessities of life with pervading misery and despondency across the country.

“NEC expresses serious apprehensions over the spate of acts of terrorism and violence including the escalated cases of mindless killings, mass abduction of innocent Nigerians and marauding of communities in various parts of the country.

“NEC condemns the insensitivity, nonchalance, incompetence and arrogance in failure of the APC administration which continues to conduct itself in a manner that shows that it has no iota of interest or commitment towards the wellbeing of Nigerians.

“NEC also condemns the creeping totalitarianism and tendencies towards a one-party state which is inimical to the peace, stability and corporate existence of our nation as well as the development of democracy and good governance in the country.”

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The PDP leaders further emphasised that several urgent changes need to be implemented by the Federal Government to avert a looming disaster.

“NEC, after due consideration, demands that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should urgently convene a special National Security Council meeting to proffer a holistic solution and measures to curb the disturbing insecurity with its attendant negative consequences on our national life.

“NEC also demands that President Tinubu should immediately rejig his Economic Team to bring in persons of proven integrity and competence without bias and vested interest to assist in repositioning the economy.

“NEC further demands that the Federal Government should review all policies and programmes which are stifling the economy with suffocating effects on the lives of citizens; including the increase in price of fuel without cushioning measures, hike in electricity tariff, increased taxation and implementation of adverse fiscal policies.”

PDP NEC got it wrong
In his statement on behalf of the Presidency, Onanuga said: “We believe the PDP’s NEC members must have been habiting another planet, as all the accusations contradicted the reality on the ground and completely ignored the stellar achievements recorded by the Tinubu Administration in less than one year.

“Unlike the PDP administration of 16 years, the Tinubu administration has been confronting the problems of our country headlong, moving for an audacious reset that will firmly put our country on a solid economic pedestal.

“The results are already showing. Contrary to the pessimism and wishes of some PDP leaders, the national currency has become the world’s best-performing, appreciating by almost 50 per cent against the dollar in a few weeks.

“Exchange rate is stabilising as convergence has been reached between official and so-called parallel market.

“The contrived pall of gloom cast over our nation has faded out and renewed hope is now on the leash.

“Such is the positive trend that the APC economic programme is generating that the IMF has reviewed upwards the growth projection for our country this year from 2.9 to 3.3 per cent.

“The administration is targeting a higher growth with its plans to embark on audacious infrastructure projects, such as the Badagry-Sokoto Highway and the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

“The latter has attracted an unwarranted attack by one of the PDP leaders, blind to the huge economic benefits of the highway project.

“The President’s economic team is doing well and no sane government will change a winning team that is working in sync with the advisory of the private sector, state governors and economic gurus in the country.

“It was surprising that the PDP under whose watch Boko Haram was born in 2009 and worse of all, which looted the billions of dollars earmarked to equip our armed forces and the police, could so unabashedly blame the Tinubu Administration for what it wrongly termed increasing spate of terrorism and banditry.

“This is far from the truth. Security has improved, with fewer cases of terrorist attacks and banditry recorded.

“In recent weeks, over a thousand kidnapped victims, some whose kidnapping antedated this government were rescued by our gallant armed forces, without the government paying any ransom.

“The PDP is advised to harmonise its home first rather than accusing President Tinubu of trying to entrench a one-party state.

“President Tinubu nurses no such plan as it only exists in the imagination of the opposition PDP.”

President can’t be distracted
Morka accused the PDP of committing a folly, describing its vituperation as “nothing short of the hoax wailing of a shambolic party.”

He said in a statement: “PDP failed to seize the opportunity of its NEC meeting to conduct a thorough examination of institutional and operational maladies that have crippled and turned the party into an unrecognisable shadow of its old self.”

He said the party voted to devote eight out of 15 paragraphs of its communique to spewing gibberish and casting unbefitting aspersions on the APC.

The statement reads: “PDP’s NEC idly alluded to its imagined attempt by APC to ‘foist a one-party state on our nation.’

“Our great party recognises opposition politics as indispensable to multiparty democracy and continues to encourage opposition parties to provide credible and viable political alternatives to Nigerians.

“We maintain our long-held rejection of the PDP’s attempt to taint our party with its own sordid historic obsession to operate a one-party state in our country.”

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration maintains an ironclad commitment to the security and welfare of Nigerians.

“That is the nucleus of the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda – from the social investment and student loan programmes to the massive economic and infrastructural transformation underway, the administration is working assiduously to improve the quality of life of all Nigerians, and build enduring prosperity for our nation.

“The administration’s unprecedented huge investment in security is already paying off as insurgency, terrorism and other criminal activities have abated significantly.

“All critical economic indicators are shifting in the positive direction with prognosis for the future looking better than the jaundiced eyes of the PDP can see.

“The PDP’s persistent infantilism, more than anything else, is the clear and present threat to our democracy. Its NEC meeting was no more than an inglorious press conference with no iota of purpose.

“Nigerians clearly understand who is working hard on their behalf and will stand fast with President Tinubu as he continues to win massive progress for all Nigerians.

“He remains ‘indistractable’ by the noise pollution of PDP’s tattered drums.”