National chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Oyegun, has said that his party which is at helm of affairs of the federal government did not know that the country’s economy was in a bad shape before they took over power.
Speaking at a surprise birthday party held for him by staff of the APC national secretariat in Abuja on Friday, Oyegun said God blessed Nigeria with President Muhammadu Buhari who was ready to take the challenge of fixing the economy.
“It has been tough times for the nation, when we were campaigning and it is necessary to continue to hammer on this part, we were not in government,” he said.
“We knew things were very bad, but we did not know they were as bad we eventually found them and the revelations that come out everyday continue to buttress that fact.”
He lamented that due to the collapse of crude oil price, many states in the country could not pay salaries because of th heavy reliance on crude earnings.
“Nobody ever expected the price of crude to collapse in the way it has done and one can only repeat what Mr president said a few days ago,” he said.
“That is for being a nation that had an excess crude, today because of the collapse of the price of crude a lot of states of this country does not have enough resources to meet their basic functions, responsibilities.”
He said that though the country was going through hard times, there is hope due to the determination of Buhari and the party.
“That we would never again depend on a single crop whether it is oil, whether it is solid minerals, whether it is agriculture,” he added.
“The president is laying a single foundation, very solid foundation for the take-off of this nation such that all the resources that God has endowed this nation with whether it is in solid minerals that it is plentiful, whether it is in agriculture because we can grow virtually anything in this nation of ours we have been blessed with rich soil.
“The Nigeria of tomorrow would be a Nigeria that produces, the Nigeria of tomorrow would be a Nigeria that can give employment to its youth.
“The Nigeria of the tomorrow would be a nation that would provide plentiful opportunities for its people that is the Nigeria Buhari is presently constructing.”