The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of over-stretching the limits of Nigerians by “trivialising and politicising the frightening unemployment level under its corrupt and incompetent watch.”
It said the ruling party should, therefore, be ready to face the consequences ahead of “its fizzling before 2023.”
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary, the main opposition party maintained that “for attempting to distort and muffle facts on unemployment, which are already in the public domain, the APC has confirmed that it remains an Automated Lying Machine, which has never been interested in the welfare of Nigerians.”
The PDP added: “It is imperative to also state that with its latest deportment, the APC has completed the trappings of a dying party and leaves no one in doubt that it has always been a power-grabbing special purpose vehicle, which has now come to the end of its journey.
“It is shameful that in its attempt to deny that the number of unemployment persons and job losses across the formal and informal sectors had surge under its administration, the APC forgot that the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, had earlier disclosed that unemployment rate was at a frightening 23.1 per cent while raising alarm that the rate will hit a devastating 33.5 per cent in the new year, 2020.
“The APC also forgot that the minister, Ngige, while declaring open a two-day workshop on high unemployment rate earlier in the year, reportedly described the situation as scary and further alerted that apart from the swelling unemployment rate, underemployment had also surged to 16.6 percent.
“The APC also chose not to remember that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in an earlier report, stated that 16 million Nigerians (which has now risen to 18 million) were unemployed, 18 million more were underemployed while another 27.44 million, reportedly refused to work in 2016 for various reasons not unrelated to frustration in the polity under the APC administration.
“It is completely unpardonable that rather than accepting the truth and seeking for a solution to the looming unemployment Armageddon, the APC seeks to trivialise and politicise a serious national problem.
“Such crass irresponsibility was never exhibited and could never have been allowed under a PDP-controlled Federal Government.
“It is indeed shameful that at the time well-meaning Nigerians are worried about the situation and seeking for solutions, the APC and its government are bent on justifying their looting of our national resources as well as rationalising their under-the-table system of selective employment of a few, which favours only their cronies at the expense of majority of Nigerian youth.
“Today, under the APC, Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ employment letters are sold far beyond the reach of the children of regular Nigerians while the APC government gloats.
“Instead of solutions, the APC in its vindictiveness relishes in harassing and victimising hardworking Nigerian entrepreneurs, who are excelling in productive sectors including aviation, telecommunication, banking, manufacturing, construction, retail, real estate, power, oil and gas, hospitality among others, established under the robust economic policies of the past PDP administrations.
“Rather than seeking for a scapegoat where there is none, the APC should confess its sins and make haste to return the over N14 trillion stolen under its watch including the stolen N9 trillion exposed in the leaked NNPC memo. This is in addition to the mindless looting in agencies including NHIS, NEMA and FIRS.
“The APC should also take responsibility for the mortgaging of our nation with the $83 billion debt accumulated by its administration.
“Moreover the sinking APC must know that Nigerians have since moved ahead and can no longer be swayed by its empty propaganda, blame game and lies.”
Recall that the APC had on Saturday in a statement by it national spokesman, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has put a lot of PDP members out of their illegitimate job of looting the country but not the fictitious 40 million Nigerians being bandied by the opposition party.
