Corona Virus: PDP tackles Delta APC, says party values projects more than human lives

The Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, of placing more value on capital projects instead of joining the collective effort to protect and secure the lives of Deltans, following the outbreak of the deadly Corona Virus which has ravaged the world and has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This accusation was contained in a terse press statement issued by the Delta PDP Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, who not only described the APC statement that Delta State government should reduce the size of government aides, instead of cutting down on capital projects in the wake of the Corona Virus scourge, as a thoughtless and heartless attempt to trivialise a very serious issue that involves human lives and indeed the lives of Deltans in particular, but also condemned the penchant of the APC to always see everything as political, even when it is a matter of life and death and the lives of Deltans are at stake.

Dr. Osuoza said: “The Delta PDP is disturbed by the recent statement credited to the state APC and its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Sylvester Imonena, which is sadly a thoughtless and heartless attempt to trivialise a very serious issue that involves human lives and indeed the lives of Deltans in particular, by calling on government to reduce the size of its aides, instead  of cutting down on capital projects, as a way of saving funds to do more projects, following the drop in oil prices and dwindling revenues occasioned by the Corona Virus scourge.

“Does the APC even understand the monumental magnitude of what this Corona Virus scourge is all about or that it is even bigger than the size of capital projects and the number of government aides? Do they even know that the deadly Corona Virus has so ravaged the world that it has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO)? Do they realise that even as we speak, no certified and endorsed treatment or cure has been discovered for it and all human lives are at stake all over the world? Must the APC always trivialise and politicise every issue, including those that involve human lives, because it wants to talk?

“Our governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa had, as a responsible leader, rightly informed Deltans during his quarterly media chat with journalists, that the state government may be compelled to review the 2020 budget because the recent crash in global oil price has posed a major threat to the source of government revenue and this will no doubt affect the successful implementation of the 2020 budgets of states and the nation at large.

“Governor Okowa had also added that the state government will however be very cautious and not rush into decisions on this and while it will slow down on capital budget it would also encourage contractors to stay on sites. He had also noted too that the Corona Virus outbreak is currently affecting the national economy negatively, as many industries are not in full production at the moment and that if the threat is not checked, it is going to create more negative impact on the economy, especially, the internally generated revenue.

“This declaration and explanations by the governor are very clear and unambiguous, so it beats the imagination on how the APC has now jumped into the murky waters of its own very illogical and totally diversionary ocean of comparing the Corona Virus issue with the number of government aides.

“Unfortunately, it appears that the APC and its publicists either do not read newspapers or listen to the news, otherwise they would have been properly informed that its own government at the centre, led by President Muhammadu Buhari had, in response to the very serious nature of the situation, recently met with some Ministers and set up a committee in his own words ‘to assess the impact of Corona Virus on 2020 budget and the economy in general’.

The committee’s responsibility, he said will be to check how the dwindling price of crude oil caused by the outbreak will affect the country’s economy.

The Finance Minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, also confirmed that the committee would decide whether to reduce the budget benchmark of $57 per barrel and if that happens, recommend a reduction in the size of the N10.59 trillion budget.

“The question we want to ask the APC now is, why didn’t the committee even think of suggesting that President Buhari and his wife, Aisha and Vice President Osinbajo and the other members of the Aso Rock cabinet cut down on the humongous number of aides in the presidency in response to the Corona Virus?

“Only quite recently too, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who is also the APC leader in Delta State and South South, told Nigerians to brace up as Oil Price dropped as a result of the Corona Virus.

“Omo-Agege said that the recent global outbreak of the Corona Virus poses peculiar challenges, not only for personal health, but also for the economy and business, manifesting already in the global oil and foreign exchange markets, which have now become frightening challenges that we must solve.

“Our advise to Delta APC now is to also urge the Deputy Senate President to reduce the number of his considerably over-bloated aides, especially those who are not even Deltans anyways, but were appointed largely on political patronage to his non-Deltan political godfathers and are not adding any single value to Delta State, but instead occupying positions which are supposed to be rightfully meant for Deltans, as his own response to tackling the Corona Virus,” the PDP spokesman said.