The Peoples Democratic Party has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, to face the challenge of putting the economy in a good shape instead of “crying like a helpless baby.”
It also said that the ruling party lacked vision to run the economy.
The main opposition party, which ruled the country from 1999 to 2016, also said that the APC’s incompetence and poor handling of the economy caused recession.
Consequently, it said that President Buhari and the APC should stop blaming former President Goodluck Jonathan for the current state of the economy.
The spokesperson for the PDP National Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said this in a statement he signed in Abuja on Sunday.
Adeyeye said the PDP had noticed that some governors of the APC had also joined the fray by blaming the former ruling party and Jonathan for the current hardship in the country.
Specifically, he mentioned the Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, as one of those who he said were of the opinion that the last PDP administration was responsible for the current economic recession.
Adeyeye said, “It is really disappointing that a notable personality as highly-placed as a state governor could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian claims without the benefit of facts.
“It is either he does not realise the obligation of speaking responsibly in that position or he is grossly ill-informed.
“In which case, we could only try to put the facts before him, and hoping he would recognise them.
“In the first place, this blame is misplaced because our elementary understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses.
“Perhaps, we should quote those who should know and tell Governor Badaru that wrong economic policies of the APC-led government caused the current stagnation and recession in the country.”
Adeyeye referred the ruling party and the government to a statement credited to the President of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association, Mr. Larry Ettah, a few days ago to buttress his point.
He said, “Ettah did not mince words when he said a few days ago that, ‘It is quite evident that the lack of clarity about the economic agenda of the current government contributed to the current economic stagnation and recession.
“‘In recent times at our AGMs, we have variously described our operating environment as challenging, unpredictable, unstable and energy sapping. These words are of course, true and descriptive of what our members have experienced in keeping their businesses afloat.’
“However, beyond that, we make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan and the PDP government saw this coming since 2011, and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru and his co-travellers who are now in the APC frustrated the effort.”
He added that the former administration also wanted to encourage more savings in the Excess Crude Account and set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund but that “the Badarus of this world” who he said played politics with serious national issues and were state governors at the time took the Federal Government to court and did everything to frustrate the effort.
“Thank God some of them are among the ‘best brains’ in the APC Federal Government of today,” Adeyeye stated sarcastically.
He said that Badaru should know that it would be difficult to plant grapes and harvest mangoes.
Apart from this, he alleged that it was no longer a secret that the policies and statements made by key government actors had not been business-friendly.
This action, he added, made some Nigerians and foreign businessmen to take their hard currencies out of the country.
He said, “When professionals were advising the government to woo investors, characters like Badaru were busy demarketing Nigeria all over the world.
“They should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike the prevailing situation where a ruling party plunges the economy into an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly like a baby.
Adeyeye called on the Federal Government to stop the blame game and look inward towards resolving the recession by inviting economic experts irrespective of their political leaning to join hands with the administration at these trying times.
PUNCH NG
