19th August, 2016
present situation after 16 years of locust, lacks the moral basis and
the credibility to comment on the country’s economy.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, in a statement issued on Friday by its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the PDP also has no right to condemn a government that is working hard to clear the mess left behind by the disgraced former ruling party.
Odigie-Oyegun said it is stomach-churning and downright immoral
for the ruinous PDP, which has yet to show remorse or exhibit any form
of penitence for presiding over the mindless looting of the nation’s
treasury, to now put itself up as the saviour of Nigerians.
Noting that even among thieves, there must be honour, the Chairman
said Nigerians, who are now bearing the brunt of the economy that was
mindlessly mismanaged by the PDP, cannot forget in a hurry that some
$15 billion – which is about half of the nation’s foreign reserves at
the end of the tenure of the PDP-led Federal Government – was
mismanaged under the guise of the equipping the military, when in
reality the funds were largely salted away by PDP fat cats.
He said Nigerians are also not unaware that just before the last
general elections, some $2.1 billion was shared out to just a few PDP
faithful, either to be used for praying again Boko Haram or for
phantom communication purposes, when in reality the soldiers whom the
money was meant to equip were dying in droves.
The Chairman listed other instances of the massive looting of the
national till under the PDP, which never differentiated between the
party’s finances and the Nigerian treasury, to include:
— The $20 billion in oil proceeds that was never paid into the
Federation Account
— The N33 trillion in national oil revenue that was not accounted
for, considering that while the nation earned in excess of N56
trillion over five years under the last Administration, the total
budget for those years amounted to about N23 trillion
— The $47 million that was distributed to a few individuals just to
oil the election process before the last polls.
He said while indeed it was glaring that the PDP-led Administration
was profligate and rapacious, nothing prepared Nigerians for the
mind-boggling discoveries that have emerged in the past one year,
including the fact that just a handful of people could have plundered
far more than half of what belonged to a country of over 170 million
people!
”What is happening now is clear: Just because the farmer has not
checkmated the thief, he (thief) has become so emboldened that he is
now making a move to even cage the farmer from whom he has been
stealing.
“How else can one characterize the most annoying statement by the PDP
that it is on a mission to rescue Nigeria, the tale of a killer
presenting himself as a life saver! Are these people jokers? Do they
think Nigerians do not realize that the stage for today’s tough
economic situation was set by the same PDP that is now masquerading as
a saviour? Worse still, is this PDP’s bold face not a ploy to distract
the Administration that is on a rescue mission?
“Nigeria is currently in ICU (Intensive Care Unit), after it was
rescued from PDP. Yet, the same PDP has the audacity to constantly
pillory the ‘doctors’ trying to save the ‘patient’,” the Chairman
said.
The Chairman appealed to Nigerians not to succumb to the antics of the
PDP but to continue to support the efforts of the present
Administration, which is working day and night to ease the impact of
the tough economic situation on the citizens.
”Yes, we knew the situation was bad, but we never imagined that it
was this bad. Yes, we knew that the vast majority of our national
patrimony had been stolen and converted by PDP and their cronies, but
we clearly under-estimated the scope of the stealing. The fact that
our country and people survived the PDP and the last administration is
perhaps the 8th wonder of the world.
”But we have long moved beyond bothering about this mindless party to
seeking to bring the nation back to its feet. What we cannot fathom is
for the same PDP to now be heckling us and pretending to be the new
saviour of Nigerians.
“Engaging in a campaign of calumny by claiming that the country’s
economy under President Muhammadu Buhari was deteriorating is so
unconscionable on the part of the PDP, which frittered away the huge
windfall that the nation earned during the years that oil sold for
over $100. Even with the number of PDP operatives and officials who
have confessed or admitted their complicity in the looting of the
treasury, the party has continued to try to pull the wool over the
face of Nigerians.
”This shameless distraction must stop forthwith, and here is serving
notice that henceforth, the PDP will no longer have a field day in
trying to twist facts and present the Buhari Administration, which is
on an urgent rescue mission, as the villain,” Chief Oyegun warned