Nigerian Economy in Shambles, PDP Insists ...Defends Atiku's debt assertion

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday berated the federal government over attempts to hoodwink Nigerians by concealing official documented data on debts and the alarming state of the country’s economy. According to the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, "Our party insists that it is in public knowledge that our country's economy has been mismanaged arising from excessive borrowings by the President Muhammadu Buhari's administration." The PDP described as scandalous, disgraceful and highly irresponsible that the Buhari-led administration attempted to disprove already known facts as presented by former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that the Nigeria’s debt profile under the Buhari administration has risen to 99 percent of the revenue profile in the first quarter of 2020. PDP said it is reprehensible that the federal government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would deny that its first quarter 2020 financial report stated that federal government’s retained revenue stood at N950.56 billion while the total debt services was N943.12 billion. In the federal government denial, the PDP said the minister forgot that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy document from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, which showed the figures, was already in the public domain. The party said for the avoidance of doubt, tables 3.4 and 4.3 of the report respectively state that: “As at end of March 2020, FGN’s retained revenue was N950.56 billion,” and that “of the expenditure, N943.12 billion, was for debt service.” The PDP urged Nigerians to note how the response by the federal government to issues raised by Atiku has further exposed the falsehood and concealments inherent in the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration and why the country’s economy has been in a dire strait. According to the PDP spokesperson, “The fact is that the Buhari administration has destroyed the economy with accumulation of debts to the extent that the debt profile has risen to 99 percent of the retained revenue,” adding that no amount of whitewash by the Minister of Information can distort such fact. He explained that it is equally inexcusable for the minister to claim that the debts taken by the administration was meant to address the poverty it brought to the country, when it cannot point to any tangible project it had done in any critical sector apart from turning the country into the poverty capital of the world. PDP stated, therefore, that it is, however, clear that with the prevailing situation and the refusal by the Buhari-led government to take responsibility for its actions, the economy is heading to the brinks. It counseled the Buhari administration to desist from its denials and take responsibility for the economic crisis and debt burden it has plunged Nigeria into, declaring that the earlier they wake up and begin to think of what legacy their eight years in office will be remembered for, the better.