October 1, 2018
Press Statement
PDP: Buhari’s Independence Day Address Is Full Of False Claims, Empty Assertions
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) describes the Independence Day
Anniversary Speech by President Muhammadu Buhari as a litany of false
claims, empty assertions and bogus promises.
The party holds that while the President was fictitiously asserting that
our economy had made progress under him and that there is enabling
environment for local and foreign investments, hard economic reality
shows that not only has the nation become more economically
disadvantaged under him, it now ranks as one of the world’s poorest.
Perhaps Mr. President needs to be reminded that his new minister of
Finance Zainab Ahmed had last month alerted that the nation was facing
serious revenue challenges under him, while the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) expressed fears that our country is sliding further into recession
due to his poor implementation of 2018 budget.
In his false economic assertions, President Buhari deliberately failed
to mention that his administration has returned our beloved country to a
debtor nation by accumulating over N22.4 trillion debt through which he
had mortgaged the future of our country.
Mr President also failed to respond to the fact that his harsh economic
policies and demarketing tendencies, has caused a dearth in local and
foreign direct investment, leading to over 30 million job losses as
detailed by independent surveys including those by the National Bureau
of Statistics (NBS).
Similarly, Mr. President failed to state that due to his incompetence,
the naira has fallen from the N165/1USD he met in 2015 to N360 to 1USD.
He had no words for the increase in the price of fuel from N87 in 2015
to N145 as well as the hike in the prices of staple foods and essential
commodities in Nigeria under his misrule.
Furthermore, President Buhari claimed that under his administration,
corruption, including brazen theft of billions of naira and shady oil
deals have become a thing of the past. Perhaps, Mr. President forgot
that the latest corruption perception index released by Transparency
International (TI), which saw our nation moving 12 places down the red
line, shows that corruption has increased under him.
What the Buhari Presidency should note is that Nigerians are no longer
swayed by the false performance claims of his administration. They have
the facts and nobody can beguile them as was the case in 2015.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
