By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A report by the World Bank that seven million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty in the past one year alone “clinically” disproves the “integrity posturing” of President Muhammadu Buhari, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The All Progressives Congress (APC) also came in for knocks in a statement issued by the PDP which contrasts the verdict by the World Bank with claims by Buhari that his administration has lifted 10 million Nigerians out of poverty since 2019.
The statement was signed by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
It asserts that the report by the World Bank has further vindicated position of the PDP that “Buhari runs an uncoordinated and clueless administration that thrives on lies, false performance claims, deceit and perfidious propaganda.”
And “Nigerans can now clearly see why the APC and Buhari’s handlers are always in a frenzy to attack our party and other well-meaning Nigerians whenever we point to the poor handling of the economy and on the need for Buhari to always be factual on pertinent issues of governance in our country.”
Ologbondiyan said Buhari “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 [he] 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 per cent 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 Buhari, the PDP stressed, Nigerians are now subjected to the worst form of poverty and hardship, with collapsed purchasing power, “occasioned by a voodoo economy management” that has wrecked productive sectors and pummeled the naira from about N167 to the dollar in 2015 to more than N500/dollar now.
It is unfortunate, the PDP said, that Buhari chooses to “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.”
Ologbondiyan urged Nigerians to note “similar false performance claims” by Buhari and the APC in other critical sectors.
He listed the sectors to include power, transportation, road infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, security, aviation among others, where the Buhari administration “has been bandying fictitious figures” without a tangible project.
“Our party counsels 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 [him] to end his false performance claims and get more competent hands to manage the economy before every Nigerian is turned into a street beggar.”