The All Progressives
Congress (APC) in its usual blame game has been accusing the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led government of plunging the country into the current economic predicament. The APC, in a statement released to newsmen in Abuja recently, warned the PDP to stop making insensitive comments about the economy as the APC government is conscious of the hardship its citizens are faced with.
Reacting to the so-called “orchestrated and insensitive comments by the PDP on the economy, the APC through its national secretary, Mai Mala Buni said: “In spite of PDP’s orchestrated and feeble attempts to blackmail the current administration and twist facts, the reality remains that the prevailing socio-economic hardship faced by Nigerians is a direct hardship faced by Nigerians is a direct consequence of the mismanagement of the economy.
“It also includes the unprecedented looting of the country’s commonwealth perpetrated under PDP’s watch. The PDP’s attempt to turn truth on its head is fraudulent, insensitive and an insult to Nigerians. For the umpteenth time, the PDP must own up to its transgression and apologise to Nigerians”, he said, urging Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari.
But former President Goodluck Jonathan recently debunked APC’s blame insinuations, saying that the current economic recession in the country was unprecedented.
The chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum and governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha, on Monday, October 24,2016, said the APC had taken responsibility for Nigeria’s economic downturn. He said although some of the problems predated the present administration, the party must take responsibility without shifting blame.
Okorocha who spoke with State House correspondents shortly after leading the APC governors to a closed-door meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja said: “This was not a problem brought by APC government, it is a problem that has existed long before APC came to government and we are only trying to clear the mess of the past. But we must take responsibility and we must never shift the responsibility to anybody. As APC, we are responsible for everything happening in Nigeria. We are responsible for the good, the bad, the ugly, but we are promising Nigerians that we shall fix it”.
While admitting that Nigerians were passing through difficult times, Okorocha said there was no surgery that was not painful, adding that Nigerians were experiencing pains because the country was going through what he called “a very serious economic surgery”. The Imo State Governor asked Nigerians to be more patient with the present administration.
The truth remains that no matter the allegations leveled against the PDP-led administration in the past 16 years, Nigerians never had it so tough and rough economically. With the present economic situation, no one knows where the country is headed. Inflation rate is on the high side and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate is awful. I think it’s high time the APC-led administration clipped the wings of this hydra headed economic monster called recession before it suffers a mass drift of its members to the PDP before the 2019 general elections.
Nigerians have run out of patience as there is astronomical rise in inflation and unemployment rate, and socio-political temperature in the country. One area where the opposition Peoples Democratic Party can take free-ride or optimum advantage to actualize its struggle of taking over power in 2019 is in the fact that Nigeria has been punch drunk by the ruling APC. The country has been plunged into economic coma which only God can bring her back to life. For 18 months after taking over government, the APC is yet to grasp or have the strong political will to fix the nation’s economy.
Already, with eyes firmly focused on the Presidency, the PDP is working assiduously towards taking over Aso Rock in 2019. The party stands a better chance and firmly to retrieve its stolen mandate in the 2015 election.
In a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day South-West PDP stakeholders and Elders Meeting held in Gazo Event Centre, Toll Gate, Ibadan, Oyo State, the party decided that irrespective of the various challenges facing the party at the national level, the party’s leadership vowed to remain in PDP with a view to taking over power in Nigeria in 2019.
2019 is around the corner and ahead of this politically-charged and highly volatile socio-economic environment lies a fiercely loyal-but-highly- critical support base for the PDP. One of the major challengs in running Nigeria’s socio-economic landscape is that of ensuring that best practices are employed to boost the economy.
There are strong indications that PDP is bouncing back to life. At a meeting convened by the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT) members from South-West, on the platform of South-West PDP Forum, the members and leaders of the party were urged to close ranks and work together as a solid and united team to sustain the control of Ondo State in the forthcoming gubernational election and take over their stolen mandate at the Aso Rock come next election in 2019. The forum called on the state chapters of the party to replicate this type of meeting in their respective states to resolve all internal grievances.
The party’s former national deputy chairman, Chief Shuaib Oyedokun, in his welcome address at the meeting, urged the two factions in the PDP at all levels to unite in order to avoid monumental loss in the forthcoming elections.
The meeting, he explained, was “purely the initiative of the south-west members of the Board of Trustees, which is a replica of what the main body is doing at the centre, and an extension of the National Reconciliation Committee”.
He said: “PDP is not dead and will not die. Therefore, be wary of poachers, else, you are misled. Neither the APC nor any other emerging party will subdue the PDP any more because when we rise, neither APC nor any new party would have any more lie to tell Nigerians”.
He explained that the meeting was an honest attempt to call members of the party back on track after the Port Harcourt convention saga and the lull that followed it.
Onyedokun commended the national body of PDP and enjoined members to identify with the peace moves initiated by Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National caretaker committee and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s committee.
It is unfortunate that when the ruling APC should be settling down to delivering on its mandate, it is struggling with the economy and other less important issues. The party is without any remarkable policy accomplishments.
Under its watchful eyes, remedial measures relative to reducing the cost of governance, fiscal reform, improving power supply, growing the non-oil sector, generating wealth and employment to rejuvenate the economy are hardly applied. Buhari rather than save Nigeria from the shackles of misery and Senator, has been concentrations on endless journey of recovering so-called looted funds Nigerians are yet to know where they are channeled ok.
Governor Okorocha’s courage and true confession that the APC should take responsibility for economic downturn is quite commendable but the party has to work harder and ensure that the economy bounces back.
On its part, the PDP should do everything possible to put its hose inorder bearing in mind that the country is also suffering due to the leadership crisis rocking it. As the main opposition party, the PDP is supposed to be a key party in rallying bipartisan consensus on critical national issues, especially salvaging the country’s ailing economy. Political parties are vital in sustaining any truly democratic government.
Nigeria needs a more streamlined government that will rehabilitate the country’s poor roads, approve plans for new ones, ensure sustained power supply, revive the economy and eradicate poverty improve infrastructure, among other things. It is believe that from the present happening in the country, the PDP would have learned its lessons which would strengthen it to get hold of power and deliver to the people if it re-emerges in 2019.
Viewing what is happening now, one is forced to say that the APC family is more or less of amateur politicians with shallow political foundation and cracks. They are likened to street boys who fill potholes with sand or rubble and hold out their palms for tips from the motorists who roll slowly by, but their amateur repair work rarely survives the first downpour. So, in the middle of the day, the streets are horribly gridlocked. The PDP, like the local arm of the global beverage giant, was very helpful but some selfish Nigerians, did not care to know, hence the clamour for change.
Nigerians now find themselves in a car with no cooling breeze coming through the windows, it is monstrously humid. After five minutes in the cab, they are sweating like a pig in a plastic jogging suit. Under Nigerian concept, it may not be easy to move the country to the right direction until the right person arrives.

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Shedie Okpara