The Action Democratic Party (ADP) on Thursday blamed the growing
unemployment, poverty and insecurity in the country on corruption and poor
policy formulation.
The party insisted that the present administration
has failed to meet the aspirations of the Nigerian masses especially in the
area of human capital development and job creation.
ADP said it has good plans to turn the situation
around when voted into power.
Addressing a press conference at its national headquarters in
Abuja, ADP National Chairman, Yabagi Yusuf Sani, said after a thorough research,
the party has developed an economic blueprint anchored on free trade and
private sector participation as the core driver of the economy.
Speaking further on the poor condition in Nigeria at present,
Sani said corruption and poor policy responses to the yearnings masses has led
to deplorable living condition and insecurity.
He said: "Nigeria appears not to be winning the
war. First, there is the politicisation of the fight. However, the most
insidious producer of corruption is the system and structure that we operate
which motivates and inspires corruption.
"While it is good chasing after those who have
pilfered the commonwealth, it is far more profitable and time- saving to
truncate the system that breeds corruption.
“ADP has developed the strategy of total reforms of
the bureaucracies to address this challenge."
On the state of economy, the party also blamed the
recession on the steps taken by the present government.
"Nigeria just wriggled out of recession,
caused by the disingenuous steps taken by the government and the impacts were
immediate and sharp. The unemployment rate has doubled from 9.9 percent in the
third quarter of 2015 to 18.8 percent in the third quarter of 2017, according
to the NBS. The statistics agency has also disclosed that the number of
unemployed Nigerians also increased to 15.99 million in the third quarter of
2017 from 11.9 million in the third quarter of 2016.
"It is disheartening today that Nigeria has been
mindlessly turned into a mono- economy so dependent on crude oil to the neglect
of other sectors of the economy. Crude oil now constitutes about 90 percent of
Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and about 80 percent of its total export.
The most pathetic aspect is that successive leaders in Nigeria have failed to
add value to the crude oil. It is shameful that over 90 percent of Nigeria's
crude oil is exported abroad for refining at great cost to this country and the
leaders don't feel an iota of conscience.
"But we know why this ill-motivated and dubious
policy has sustained for years. The cabal that runs this crude oil export
business has appropriated the sector with explicable but highly corrupt
initiatives predicated on a subsidy regime that has corrosive impact on the Nigerian
oil and gas industry.
“That is why the cabal in connivance with their
cronies and collaborators in government make the country appears helpless as
its four refineries are deliberately plunged into protracted disrepair,” the
party leader said.
According to
Sani, Nigeria is said to consume about 30 million litres of petrol while the
country's refineries can only cumulatively produce 450,000 litres per day
because our leaders have deliberately refused to find solutions to this
anomaly."
On the economic blueprint being packaged by ADP, Sani
said the party would implement a new policy on trade and investment that would open
up opportunities for local and foreign investors both small and medium
enterprises or multi-national companies.
"When we come to power, we shall change the
structure of the economy from its purposeless colonial foundation to a more
productive economy. Any one, for instance, who wants to do business in the oil
sector in Nigeria, must refine petroleum products in Nigeria. We intend to
establish factories with diverse capacities in every senatorial district in the
country and fashion out the development initiatives suitable for the Nigerian
people.”
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