18th July, 2011
The immediate past governor of Lagos State and the National leader of the foremost opposition party in Nigeria, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Asiwaju BolaAhmed Tinubu has slammed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for bad governance in the country.
In a speech he delivered today at Chatham House, London in the United Kingdom, Tinubu reported that 12 years of PDP’s management of the economy has been ineffective with inflation churning 12 percent of the nation’s resources and unemployment rate put at 19.7 per cent.
He noted with disdain that as at March 2009, 10 million Nigerians were confirmed to be unemployed. Tinubu lamented that the figures were confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The ACN national leader said the middle class, the backbone of any democracy, is almost going extinct adding that in about 10 years, over $15 billion was spent to improve power generation, yet Nigeria has not been able to generate up to 4,000 mega watts per day.
“Food prices are climbing so much that hunger has entered households where it was once a stranger. After earning about $200 billion dollars from oil revenue in 10 years, based on NNPC documents, Nigeria is still a pauper nation. The PDP big guns must be the only ones benefitting from this illusory economic growth,†Tinubu noted.
He identified corruption as the bane of Nigeria’s development. He cited examples of illegal deductions and extortions from operators in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry.
Tinubu charged President Goodluck Jonathan to address boldly the wastage of the nation’s resources through illegal subsidies that add no value to the lives of the people as shown in the $8 billion per year spent on petroleum subsidy.
He recalled the futile attempt by former President Obasanjo to hijack and dominate the nation’s economy for himself and his cronies through the purchase of Transcorp, a firm which sought to purchase everything it could from telephone to the best hotel in Abuja.
He commended the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for dismantling Transcorp, saying this was a silent revolution which Nigerians owe him a debt of gratitude.
The ACN leader also warned Jonathan to beware of his advisers who are mostly “Obasanjo men†who might want to finish their agenda that was interrupted by the late Yar’Adua.
He opined that the president’s ability to reject their advice would help him to move the economy forward.
Speaking on the issue of fiscal federalism, Tinubu berated the PDP government for side-tracking the Supreme Court verdict when it improperly siphoned funds constitutionally meant for the states under the excess crude account and now through the sovereign wealth fund.
He said the Federal Government could use this fund as it liked, enrich government apologists while the masses are pauperised in the process, adding that an ACN government would do better than the PDP in managing the economy by pursuing a true fiscal federalism.
Commenting on the 2007 elections, Tinubu said it was an improvement on the 2007 elections though the PDP still emerged the dominant party with its majority seats in the National Assembly reduced.
However, he said the elections were not as free and fair as foreign observers proclaimed.
He cited cases of intimidation and harassment of ACN supporters in Benue, Kwara, Taraba and Akwa Ibom states among others.
Tinubu claimed that the ACN supporters were the ones humiliated, killed and maimed, yet they were also the ones prosecuted as the PDP government used the police and other security agents to persecute their opponents.
Prominent Nigerians at the occasion include ACN national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Pius Akinyelure, Tinubu’s friend, the Speaker Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, members of the state legislature and others.
—Moyo Fabiyi