Osita Okechukwu: PDP, not APC, mortgaged Nigeria’s future
Osita Okechukwu, a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says it was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)—not the ruling APC—that mortgaged Nigeria’s future.
His comment comes in response to criticisms by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of “fiscal vandalism” following the National Assembly’s approval of $21 billion in foreign loans.
The ADC had warned that the borrowing spree would push Nigeria’s public debt beyond N200 trillion by the end of 2025, with no clear signs of development or economic rebound to justify it.
But addressing reporters on Sunday, Okechukwu dismissed the claim, saying the real fiscal wreckers were those behind the PDP-era privatisation drive.
“My candid position is that, leadership of the ADC are the true vandals who really mortgaged Nigeria today and tomorrow via their less than transparent privatisation programme,” he said.
“Electricity, as bedrock of economic development, Nigerians have not slept since the day they auctioned NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla under all manner of conspiracy theories.”
He challenged the ADC to come clean on the legacy of that era.
“One challenges ADC, if they are truly transparent, to release the House of Representatives report on the $16 billion fiscal vandalism on the electricity value chain under their watch, dubbed Ndudi Elumelu 2009 Report.”
Okechukwu, who is a former director-general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), said the PDP also wrecked its own political legacy by failing to uphold the principle of power rotation in the last election.
“Just as ADC vandalised NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla, our economic substructure; they also vandalised the superstructure of our sister political party, the PDP’s unity rotation convention in 2023 and now took refuge in the ADC.”
He criticised those who defected from the PDP to the ADC, saying their refusal to rebuild the opposition was a disservice to the country.
“Instead of joining fellow patriots to reposition the dislocated PDP, they hurriedly took refuge in the ADC, thinking that hauling stones will make Nigerians forget the Manitoba and other less than transparent transactions which led to prohibitive electricity tariff and stymied huge investment like Aluminum Smelter, Ajaokuta and others.”
When asked about the current debt concerns raised by the ADC, Okechukwu advised President Tinubu to focus borrowing on critical infrastructure.
“For me, we should resist borrowing for recurrent expenditure or flimsy, if there is any, rather than the implementation of the Orasonye Report and urgent cutting down of unnecessary expenditures,” he said.
“One will support President Tinubu to borrow about $50 billion to overhaul the entire electricity value chain, a bedrock of economic resorgimento.”
He also urged the president to rethink certain loan allocations.
According to him, instead of borrowing $3 billion to rehabilitate the narrow gauge of Eastern Corridor Railways at the moment, he should borrow a commensurate higher amount for standard gauge railways and one deep sea port in the Niger Delta to stimulate economic growth,” he added.
