The leaders of the Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have all condemned the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as outlined in the APC’s presidential campaign manifesto.
According to WITHIN NIGERIA, this development comes after Tinubu’s manifesto was unveiled and the Presidential Campaign Council was inaugurated last Friday.
In an interview with The PUNCH, the LP’s spokesman, Abayomi Arabambi, said it is unfortunate that Tinubu and the APC dare to launch a campaign asking for the mandate to improve Nigerians’ lives after the party has plunged the country into hardship.
He said;
That is why the Labour Party is surprised that those who foisted Buhari on Nigerians for the second time instead of burying their heads in shame still want to elongate Buhari’s in office by continuing his anti-people policies.
Also, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said;
The APC and Tinubu had the voters to contend with given the manner they had been governed in the past seven and a half years.
What is important in this campaign is that records count. In 2023, Nigerians are going to be interested in records. APC is not known to keep promises and that is why they have been referred to as All Promises Cancelled. The party is in liquidation and they are dying in instalments,” Ologunagba added.
On that basis, Ologunagba argued that their current performance would be evident at the polls next year.
Jide Ojo, a political analyst, told the newspaper that the manifesto only sounds good on the surface and that Tinubu and the APC should be questioned about how they intend to deliver on their promises if elected.
He remarked, “How are we sure that there would be no truckload of excuses if he wins and forms a new government?”
On his part, a financial analyst, Kalu Aja, described the APC’s manifesto as a tough sell because the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection should be queried.
Aja said;
This is the GDP growth projection of Bola Tinubu of the APC, it’s a straight automatic 10 per cent every year from 2023. Mathematically, this is a tough sell; as GDP grows, growth stalls because the denominator grows bigger.
Dr Olalekan Aworinde, an associate professor of Economics at Pan-Atlantic University, believes that the APC’s manifesto can be achieved, but only if certain factors are considered.
One fundamental thing is that when the Buhari government first came into power, they also promised us all of these. But how many of these were they able to achieve?”
The Dean of the School of Business and Entrepreneurship at the American University of Nigeria, Professor Leo Ukpong, said “to move an economy forward from the depressed economy that Nigeria is facing is like moving a very big ship and it takes a lot of time. Nigeria’s economy is saddled with too much debt; our debt level is way too high.