…Urges opposition party to stop dabbling into unfamiliar affairs
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
A pro-democracy group, under the auspices of The Democratic Front (TDF) has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to deceive itself claiming to have delivered on the nation’s economy after plunging it into ruins for 16 years.
The group chided the opposition party in a statement it issued and jointly signed by its Chairman Danjuma Mohammed and Secretary Wale Adedayo.
While reacting to the communique issued by PDP at the end of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the TDF claimed that the country has not still recovered from the mindless plundering of the economy in the PDP years.
The statement read: “Imagine a political party that failed woefully and landed the country in its present parlous economic state now pontificating on efforts to revitalize the national economy as if they ever had any clue.
“Rather than bury their heads in shame because of the roles the former ruling party played in bringing the country to its knees, they are busy pontificating on the bold initiatives and reforms being initiated by President Bola Tinubu.
“The position of the PDP calls for outright condemnation and repudiation by every well-meaning Nigerian. If the party’s NEC had limited itself to its desperate but unrealistic bid to unify the dilapidating structures of a deeply divided political party, which the PDP has become, that communique would have attracted better attention.
“The absurdity and the manner the NEC members exhibited pretentious insensitivity to the tragic consequences of their party’s 16 years of misrule resonates the role PDP played to hinder the growth and development of the Nigerian state.
“A political party which plundered Nigeria’s hard earned resources and brutally squandered its national patrimony for those lenghty years is expected to display remorse and responsibility on matters of economic revitalization and statecraft,” it wrote in the statement.
Attacking PDP further, the group queried: “Who will easily forget the ring-fencing of hundreds of state-owned companies and investments through an opaque privatisation process, the massive diversion of oil revenue into private foreign bank accounts as well as the unconscionable sale and concession of the Nigeria power sector to unqualified and incompetent proxy companies.
“How about the loss of public funds under an alleged doubtful and dubious petrol subsidy regime, the deliberate neglect and abandonment of public infrastructure in the face of huge revenue earnings and allocations, and the flagrant disregard for the ethics of social democracy and the rule of law under the direct supervision of three PDP administrations?
“All these brought the nation down on its knees and unleashed poverty and economic misery on Nigerians. This litany of PDP’s failures and unprecedented maladministration will remain evergreen in our collective memory as a people.
“So, it is egregiously ridiculous that PDP NEC members will cast aspersions on President Tinubu highly performing economic team and asked him to reverse his impressively successful economic policies,” the statement read.The group also used the opportunity to provide some insight into the gains of the Tinubu administration in the last few months.
“In less than a year of inception, the President’s economic team has pushed through policies that have led to increased revenue accruals into the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), better economic outlook and increased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) projection, a more stable naira against other currencies, increased foreign exchange inflows into the country.”