Wednesday, May 29, 2024 - The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of being blinded by political envy over the impressive achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration in its first year.
The National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party, Felix Morka, stated this while responding to the statement Atiku released criticizing the Tinubu administration. Atiku in the statement he released on Tuesday, said the Tinubu administration is not working and that policies of the present day government are only out to pauperize the poor and bankrupt the rich.
Responding to Atiku's comment, Morka in his
statement said Atiku’s critiques reflect an alternate reality fueled by
prejudice and an unpatriotic desire for the country’s failure, hoping it would
pave his path to the presidency.
The statement reads
“The Presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has
not let up on his vilipending of the outstanding first-year record of
achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. In his latest
statement, Atiku claimed that Mr. President was not ready for reforms,
dismissing his policies as “trial and error.”
Atiku’s
self-serving efforts to minimize the bold, genuine, and metamorphic policies
and interventions of the present administration only smacks of primordial
political envy and crass desperation for the power that Nigerians have so
wisely denied him. The former Vice President lives in an alternate reality of
prejudice and unpatriotic desire for Nigeria’s failure so he may scavenge his
way to an even more elusive presidency.
Quite
contrary to Atiku’s claim, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has, in its
first year in office, attracted over $20 billion into the economy while the
stock exchange has ballooned from N18.12 billion in Q1 of 2023 to N93.37
billion in Q1 of 2024, representing an increase of over 400 percent with an
annual economic growth rate leaping from 2.5 percent to 3.46 percent. Key
sectors of manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, solid minerals,
e-commerce, and fintech have continued to attract an increased and ceaseless
flow of foreign direct investments (FDIs). Yet, Atiku remains willfully blind
to the pace of progress that is so self-evident.
President
Tinubu set an audacious target of building a $1 trillion economy in the next
few years and has put together a bevy of experts and professionals, and
introduced far-reaching policies and programmes to drive the actualization of
this desirable economic target. The President needs the support and
encouragement of Nigerians, not the bile-filled pessimism of partisan Atikus.
Atiku’s
false alarm of an imminent food scarcity boldface ignores the widely
acknowledged proactive measures already introduced by President Tinubu to
guarantee food security in the country. In December 2023, the Federal
Government set a target for the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land across
the federation. Cultivation of rice, maize, wheat, and cassava on over 246,231
hectares of land in 30 states of the federation is in progress in addition to
approving massive grants and other incentives to farmers.
The former
Vice President’s swipe on the administration’s national security management
again betrays his lack of touch with the reality of our current situation. Not
only did the administration revamp and reconfigure the country’s security
apparatus, but it also created a Special Security Fund to boost its superiority
and operational effectiveness against merchants of crime and insecurity. Yet,
Atiku turns a blind eye to considerable improvement in our security, especially
in the North East where Atiku hails from.
The same
Atiku that accused the administration of lacking compassion for the people and
failing to provide palliatives to cushion the transient onerous effects of
inevitable and vitally necessary economic policies turns around to recommend a
review of social investment policies he suggests were nonexistent. He also
conveniently ignored ongoing serious negotiations with Labour Unions on the
upward review of minimum wage for workers in the country all meant to improve
their welfare while the benefits of reforms reach that certain fullness.
Beyond his
preferred economic blueprint of selling off our prized national assets to his
friends and cronies, Atiku’s only notable contribution to Nigeria’s development
has been his unquenched and unquenchable hunger pang for power for his less
than altruistic purpose. Atiku cannot achieve in eight years what President
Tinubu has accomplished in his first year in office.
And yes, the
occasion is the first anniversary of President Tinubu’s administration, not
four or eight years in review. The opposition’s efforts to burden the
administration with ceaseless, contrived, unjustified, and diversionary
reproval are grossly miscalculated and misled. The sheer length of Atiku’s
prevaricative epistle of a statement is a testament to the expanse of the
administration’s policy and programme uptake in 365 short days.
President
Bola Tinubu remains unshakable in his commitment to building concrete blocks of
progress and greatness for Nigeria. While Atiku and his band of mudslingers
idle away, the President will continue, unstoppably, to deliver high-grade
infrastructure not only in our nation’s capital, Abuja, but all around the
country.”
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