By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to review its economic policies, especially high taxation, which has tended to scare away potential investors.
In a new year message issued by the PDP National Caretaker Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on behalf of all organs of the PDP and its family nationwide, the party also encouraged Nigerians to work harder this year in order to overcome the present difficulties.
The message signed by PDP spokesman, Dayo Adueyeye, berated the ruling APC for bringing hardship upon the people and setting back the economic milestones made by the former PDP administration.
“The bad policies of the APC-led government, no doubt, have occasioned this economic recession with its attendant consequences of extreme hardship, starvation, deprivation, insecurity and rise in ethnic, sectional and political agitations for self-determination,” it said.
According to the statement, the transformation agenda of the last PDP administration brought a lot of hope to Nigerians, the African sub-region and the economy at large.
“Nigeria economy, before handing over to the APC in May 2015, was declared the largest and the fastest growing in Africa (number one) which is now nowhere near number 30. Why is that? Incompetence it is!
“It is no gainsaying that the PDP had better policies and programmes of reforming Nigeria’s economy to provide better living condition for its citizens well-being, which it did. We hope the government of the day changes its policies of high taxations with almost non-economic activity while providing palliatives in 2017 to reduce the effect of the recession, and the country will be better for it in the coming years.
“Against this backdrop, we again advise the APC-led administration in 2017 to urgently employ the services of economic experts to put in place viable policies that will revamp our ailing economy. We are presently in recession because of significant decline in government business in both internal and external spheres.
“The federal government should increase money supply, cause rise in disposable income (spending) and decrease mindless taxations which have led to high inflation and multiple prices in money market,” the party said.
