W’Bank Report: Buhari lied, Nigerians hit by worst poverty, says PDP

*Counsels President to seek help
Tunde Opalana, Abuja
Barely 24 hours after the latest World Bank report on Nigeria’s economy was made public, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government has lied to Nigerians on all economic indices including poverty and employment rate.
The party said the report by World Bank that 7 million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty in the last one year, has clinically belied the integrity posturing of President Buhari and APC .
The PDP particularly decried the recent claims by President Buhari that his administration has lifted over 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years.
National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Wednesday said the report by the World Bank has further vindicated the party’s position that “President Buhari runs an uncoordinated and clueless administration that thrives on lies, false performance claims, deceit and perfidious propaganda.”
Faulting the Buhari’s government for not being sincere in its poor handling of the economy the party said “unfortunately, it indeed appears that Mr. President enjoys living in denial while watching millions of Nigerians go down in abject poverty, excruciating hunger and starvation as our country now ranks 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index under his watch.
“Otherwise why would Mr. President claim that his administration has lifted over 10.5 million Nigerians out of poverty while official figures even from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show worsening poverty rate with 142.2% growth in food inflation and over 82.9 million Nigerians being unable to afford their daily meals due to the failure of the administration to take practical steps to grow and protect the food sector?
“Under President Buhari, Nigerians are now subjected to the worst form of poverty and hardship, with collapsed purchasing power, occasioned by a voodoo economy management that have wrecked our productive sectors and pummeled our naira from the about N167 to a US dollar in 2015 to the current over N500 per dollar.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. President will choose to always bandy fictitious figures and false performance claims, when he has, in a space of six years, destroyed our national productivity and reduced our country to a beggarly nation, a laughing stock and object of pity among the comity of nations”.
The PDP asserted that President Buhari and APC’s falsely claimed performance in other critical sectors, including power, transportation, road infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, security, aviation among others.
“Our party counsels President Buhari, his handlers as well as their party, the APC, to note that Nigerians have seen through their deceitful clams.
The PDP, once again, urges Mr. President to end his false performance claims and get more competent hands to manage the economy before every Nigerian is turned into a street beggar”, the statement read.