By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Abuja — The All Progressives Congress (APC) has stated that it will not stop blaming the Peoples Democratic Parties (PDP) for the nation’s economic woes because of the overwhelming impact of its misdeeds during its 16-year rule.
In the last few days, the ruling APC and opposition PDP have been trading blame over the current state of the economy. This was followed by a statement by the National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, on Tuesday, when he advised the APC and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to stop blaming the opposition party for its failure to arrest the economic crisis that is presently suffocating the citizenry.
But in a statement issued by the spokesman of the South-east APC caucus, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the party said the bashing of the PDP will continue for as long as it takes to fix back the economic dislocation, the unconscionable PDP-led federal government caused the nation for 16 years.
“We regard the statement credited to the National Chairman of the PDP Sheriff to the effect that our great party, the APC, and by extension President Buhari should stop bashing the PDP)for the severe socio-economic hardship ravaging the country as theatre of the absurd of Nollywood fame.
“It’s sheer bunkum, a speech meant to cover a deep wound inflicted on the soul of Nigerians. In all honesty, how can the APC or President Buhari stop bashing the unconscionable PDP-led federal government of the last 16 years that dislocated our economy?
“As Buhari said, PDP squandered our rainy-day commonwealth which accrued in bounty seasons of crude oil sales? It’s a hard fact and facts are sacred.
“How can we forget the 1,310 kilometre old gauge Kano-Lagos railway line for which an $8.3 billion contract was awarded to the Chinese, when almost at the same time the Chinese awarded $4.2 billion for the modern gauge Lhasa-Beijing line of 4,000 kilometres? This could have tremendously improved North-South transportation.
“How can we forget the $23 billion greenfield refineries contract awarded to the Chinese in 2010, which was dead on arrival? This could have stopped the billions wasted on petroleum products importation.
“How do we forget the Lagos-Abeokuta, Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Benin, Kano-Maiduguri, Maiduguri-Yola, Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt, East-West expressways and other federal roads abandoned by the PDP federal government? This has crippled economic activities nationwide.
“How can we forget the $16 billion that PDP squandered on power projects? PDP has kept us in the dark. Had the PDP utilised the billions of dollars, which accrued to the national treasury in the last 16 years, our critical infrastructure will not be comatose?
“This is our standpoint, while we work towards fixing the rot with the meagre resources at our disposal. Those who doubt Mr. President should watch out for the implementation of the 2016 budget,” he said.
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