PDP to APC: Cooked up Indices will not save you
..Gov Dickson begs aggrieved members to remain in the party
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the indices presented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled Federal Government in the attempt to justify its claimed achievements were cooked up and will in no way push Nigerian to re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Also, the Governor of Bayelsa State and Chairman of PDP Reconciliation committee, Seriake Dickson pleaded with aggrieves members of the party to remain and contribute towards amending all the ills that characterized the last elective convention of the party.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in the statement on Thursday said the Federal Government has refused to understand that the issues raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for which he advised President Buhari not to seek re-election, are already trending in the minds of Nigerians and cannot be dismissed with doctored reports and half truths.
The party described as highly unfortunate the resort to falsehood by the Federal Government while cleverly glossing over very serious issues of deteriorating economy, incessant killings, fuel crisis, corruption in the corridors of power and absolute failure of governance as raised by Nigerians.
The PDP said it amounts to executive rascality for the APC Federal Government to use its Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to falsely claim that the economy, which it wrecked, has come out of recession, when the glaring reality shows skyrocketing costs, soaring unemployment rate, unabating closure of businesses as well as accumulation of foreign and domestic debts.
“In its attempt to further hoodwink Nigerians, the Federal Government through the minister of information cleverly stated that the nation’s
Foreign Reserves had risen to $40bn, while covering the fact presented by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that our foreign debt has also escalated to $15.2bn under APC’s misrule.
“This is a government whose domestic debt profile has scared many contractors off their sites and forcing millions of Nigerians into the labour market while development projects initiated by the PDP across the nation remains stagnated.
“The Federal Government also failed to inform Nigerians that other foreign financial instruments are being depleted, including the Excess Crude Account (ECA), from which they attempted to pilfer $1bn last year.
“It is ridiculous for the APC-led Federal Government to rely on an NBS report in giving an impression that the nation’s inflation rate has fallen at 15.37% while hiding the fact that inflation rate as at May 2015, when it took over rein of governance from the PDP, was 13.7%.
“This is even as the soaring price of commodities exposes the fact that 15.37% is not positive, as the APC government wants Nigerians to believe. The fact is that the APC is plunging the nation into deeper economic woes while trying to sugarcoat the issues with figures.
“Furthermore, the Federal Government attempted to delude Nigerians by claiming that the naira has become stable while glossing over the fact that it fell from about N165/1USD in 2015 to the current appalling N360/1USD.
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“This is in addition to phony claims of increase in foreign capital inflow of $1.8bn, while refusing to address facts from NBS that under their misrule, 16 million Nigerians are unemployed, 18 million more are underemployed while another 27.44 million refused to work in 2016 for various reasons not unrelated to frustration in the polity” Ologbondiyan narrated.
Meanwhile, Governor Dickson has also called on the aggrieved members of the PDP to show more understanding, solidarity and willingness to sacrifice for the general good of the party.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Francis Agbo, Dickson on the meeting between the governor and all the aspirants that participated in the last National Convention of the party held in December, 2017.
He commended the aspirants for demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice their individual interest for the progress of the party.
He explained that the meeting was designed to to thank the membership of the PDP for clinging onto the party especially through “this trying period.”
He said, “This is an opportunity to thank you all for your contributions to the development, sustenance of our party especially at this trying period.
“If we had had this meeting three years ago, this place would have been filled to the brim but since after the unfortunate event where the change came and gave us a terrible change, it seems that even people who profited so much from our party, have gone to the other side and yet people like you, steadfast members of the party like you are still in the PDP.
“Let me use this opportunity to call for more understanding and solidarity by members of our party and greater willingness to sacrifice for the general good, to sacrifice individual ambition, individual interest for the greater good, which is what you people have clearly displayed.
“And I will like t vo also make a call to our party men now that they are seeing things clearly. People should not cross over to the other side, stay back, strengthen, rebuild and reposition this national platform that we already have.
“Let me use this opportunity to call for more understanding and solidarity by members of our party and greater willingness to sacrifice for the General good, to sacrifice individual ambition, individual interest for the greater good, which is what you people have clearly displayed.”
Dickson said that the meeting was designed to effectively interact with the aspirants in order to hear their stories and the proffered solutions to the crisis rocking the party.
