The Peoples Democratic Party has said that the exposé by former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,vindicated its position that the President Muhammadu Buhari- led All Progressives Congress regime has “wrecked Nigeria”.
Sanusi, had at a colloquium to mark his 60th birthday in Kaduna, said, “Between 2014 and 2019, on the basis of this index of the purchasing power of the average income of an average Nigerian, we have wiped out all the progress made in 35 years. We have a responsibility as a people to rise and improve the lives of the people of this country.”
in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP asserted that the comment by Sanusi Lamido reflected the position of a majority of Nigerians and urged other stakeholders to speak up in order to arrest the slide.
The statement read, “The PDP calls on more stakeholders to speak out irrespective of ethnicity, creed and political party affiliations, so as to save the nation from a total collapse.
“The Buhari Presidency and the APC have in the last six years, only succeeded in destroying every sector of our national life with their manifest incompetence, unbridled corruption, treasury looting, impunity, exclusionist and restrictive economic policies that have brought our nation to her knees.
“Nigerians can recall that the PDP handed over a robust economy, rated the largest hub in Africa and one of the fastest-growing in the world with Fitch B+ rating and Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) of $574 billion to President Buhari and the APC in May 2015.
“Sadly, in the last six years, Buhari-led APC administration has reduced our productive sectors to complete wreckage with alarming 33.3 percent unemployment and 17.38 per cent inflation rates; over 60 million hitherto flourishing businesses folded up and the naira crashing from N167 to a dollar in 2015 to N512 under the APC corrupt and directionless watch.
“More depressing is that the corrupt APC administration has practically erased all the gains of the debt repayment achieved by the PDP, returned our nation to a beggar state, and mortgaged the sovereignty of our country with reckless borrowing and accumulated N33.107 trillion.
“Life has become so unbearable in Nigeria under President Buhari and the APC, that more than 82.9 million Nigerians are no longer able to afford their daily meals and other necessities of life, with our nation now ranking as the poverty capital of the world and 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index.
“Today, under the APC, a liter of fuel which sold for N87 under the PDP now sells for N165, a bag of rice which sold for N8,000 now sells for N30,000, a measure of garri and beans which sold for N150 and N250 now sells for N600 and N800 respectively; a measure of maize and guinea corn which sold for about N150 now sells for N400, a kilo of meat which sold for about N800 now sells for about N2,300 while a 12.5 kg of cooking gas which sold for N3,000 now sells for over N6,000, all thanks to the incompetence and corruption of the Buhari-led APC administration.
“Furthermore, the compromises of the APC administration have led to the escalation of terrorist activities, banditry, kidnapping, killings, bloody agitations as well as other acts of violence that have turned our nation into a large funeral palour, with no hope in sight.
Indeed, this is not the way our nation should go.
“The PDP, therefore, urges more Nigerians to speak out to rescue our nation from this fast descent to a failed state.
Sanusi on the occasion of his 60th birthday colloquium said, among other things, “In 1980, Nigeria’s GDP per capita on purchasing power parity basis was $2,180. In 2014, it appreciated by 50 per cent to $3,099. According to the World Bank, where were we in 2019? $2,229. At this rate in the next two years in terms of purchasing power parity, the average income of a Nigerian would have gone back to what it was in 1980 under Shehu Shagari. That means, in 40 years, no progress, we made zero progress. 40 years wasted.”