PDP Challenges APC, Buhari  to Show Proof of Scorecard

•  Says power generation now less than 2,000MW

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi has asked the All Progressives Congress and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to show Nigerians valid evidence of its achievements in the last two years.
The opposition party, which reacted to yesterday’s claim by APC  and President Buhari that their administration has worked very hard to meet the expectations of Nigerians, said the ruling party’s scorecard has been abysmally poor.
In a statement issued by the spokesman of the caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, the party said apart from the country’s economy which has grounded to a halt, the power generation dwindled from over 5,000MW in 2015 to the present all time low of less than 2,000MW.

“There is nothing to show by the APC-led government and we challenge the president and his team to articulate the two years achievement of this government point by point and let Nigerians compare with previous PDP administrations,” he said.
Adeyeye said the statement from Buhari is to say the least untrue and an insult to the intelligence of Nigerians who have been at the receiving end of his government’s mismanagement in the last two years.
The opposition party also rejected the claim by the APC government that it defeated Boko Haram, saying Nigerians have been fed continuously with the wrong narrative as if we have all slipped into collective amnesia that President Goodluck Jonathan was hopelessly ineffective against the insurgents.

“We read with rude shock and utter dismay, the President Buhari’s Easter message to Nigerians and of particular interest is the paragraph that said: ‘In the almost two years of this administration, we have worked hard to meet the expectations of Nigerians by improving security, especially in the North-east, sustaining the campaign against corruption and have taken steps to revitalize the economy.”’
On the war against insurgents, the spokesman said: “The origin of insurgency in the North-east part of the country is well known locally and internationally. We cannot forget in a hurry, the frantic efforts made by late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua to nip the ugly incidence in the bud that later escalated to the formation of the Boko Haram sect.
“Equally, when Jonathan took over government, his administration made several efforts to procure ammunition from the West to prosecute the war on terror despite stiff resistance from some of the western powers to sell weapons to Nigeria.”
He said before the 2015 general election, the Jonathan’s administration was able to procure sizeable number of war heads, ammunition and other modern weaponry to fight the Boko Haram terrorist group.

According to Adeyeye, this breakthrough led to the successful dislodgment of the terrorist sect in the North-east before the March 28, 2015  elections.
He said the armaments procured by President Jonathan are what is still being used to prosecute the war.
“Nigerians can testify to the gallant display by the Nigerian Armed Forces that allowed elections to take place in virtually all the wards and local government areas of Borno, Adamawa, Kebbi and Gombe States respectively.
“Still on the war on insurgency in the North-east, the Jonathan administration set out to rebuild the region by establishing the Presidential Initiative for the North-East (PINE). This initiative covered all sectors in the rehabilitation efforts for the zone with comprehensive project cost and partnership.

“This project was later inherited by President Buhari and Nigerians will note how PINE under the APC’s watch has fared. It has been a monumental disaster with allegations of contract awards to ghost companies and grass cutters while the internally displaced persons (IDPs) endure daily hardship and starvation. Tragically, we are yet to see the outcome of the investigation on the Nigeria’s Fighter Jet that bombed the IDP camp in Borno State killing more than 200 persons.
“For the record, the PDP not only defeated Boko Haram before it handed over power in 2015, we also reduced kidnapping and other anti-social vices in the country and there was palpable state of peace in Nigeria as at May 2015.
“The same cannot be said today as kidnapping has taken a new turn. We are also facing another menace of insecurity in the name of herdsmen attacking and displacing communities across the country. Suicide is also gradually becoming a household name in Nigeria as citizens who cannot cope with the current harsh economic condition have resorted to taking their own lives,” PDP said.
On war on corruption, the opposition party said that just like other policies and programmes of the Buhari-led APC administration, it has failed as well.
“As we have mentioned in our previous statements, any war on corruption that is selective and targeted at humiliating only leaders and other members of the opposition is a total failure. The entire anti-corruption war of the APC since inception is just in the media with only one conviction.

“Many of the cases in courts have been set aside and suspects discharged and acquitted while others are in Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and DSS detention centers without trial against their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Nigerians may also recall the several allegations of corruption made against prominent APC members that the anti-graft agency has not attended to.  The Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has been rejected twice by the Nigerian Senate because of damning corruption allegations against him made by another agency of government .
“The same with the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, and a host of other government officials against whom very serious allegations have been made. None of them have been subjected to the usual interrogations and investigation.

“The latest drama in town is the circus show of the discovery of huge sums of money of various currencies and denominations on daily basis without any trace of the owners.
“The most absurd of this charade  is the macabre dance on the so called $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 purportedly recovered at an apartment in Osborne Street, Ikoyi, Lagos. The government is at the crossroad as the Whistle-blower and the EFCC are now shying away from telling Nigerians who owned the monies because undeniable evidence links the monies to the proceeds from the sale of turbines by the former Governor of Rivers State and now Minister of  Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi. It has also been revealed that part of that proceeds was used by Amaechi to prosecute the campaigns of the APC in 2015,” the opposition party stated.

The PDP said the claim by the Director-General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) that the agency owns the stolen money “found” in a private residence, is another bad comedy by this failed APC administration.
In the area of economic management, the statement noted that immediate past PDP government of Jonathan grew Nigeria’s GDP from $270.5 billion in 2009, and handed over a Nigeria that had grown to become the fastest growing and largest economy in Africa to APC.
According PDP, under its administration, Nigeria attained the 24th largest economy in the World, with a GDP of $574 billion. In May 2015, the PDP also handed over a single digit inflation rate but today, inflation rate in Nigeria is at a double digit of 17.26 per cent.
“The recession we are experiencing today in the country is as a result of the failure of the APC led administration to properly manage our economy.

“The Buhari government is indeed clueless and had no economic plan until March 2017 when it launched the so-called recovery plan. The economy is at a standstill. Major infrastructural development that began with the previous administrations of the PDP have been abandoned. Power generation dwindled from over 5,000MW in 2015 to the present all time low of less than 2,000MW.’