PRESIDENCY REPLIES PDP, SAYS ‘NIGERIA ECONOMY WAS GASPING FOR BREATH UNDER JONATHAN’

The presidency has advised the Peoples Democratic Party “to stop its pathetic efforts to play down President Muhammadu Buhari’s achievements in his first 100 days in office and bury its head in shame for subjecting Nigeria to the worst economic plunder through corruption in its recent history”.

Reacting to a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, that the economy has been going down under the APC administration, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Nigerian economy “was gasping for breath under the egregiously corrupt PDP administration, and that the country was witnessing an acceleration of poverty which united Nigerians for change”.

According to Mr. Shehu, “the excruciating hardships experienced by Nigerians under the PDP misrule w as unprecedented, it is ridiculous to for any sane government to artificially rebase the economy and claim to transform Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa as the PDP administration did”.

He said the former ruling party was artificially manipulating statistics to create the illusion of impressive economic performance record.

According to the presidential spokesperson, one falsehood built on another cannot stand, adding that if the PDP’s claim of economic successes in terms of GDP, employment generation, poverty alleviation and others were genuine, Nigerians wouldn’t have voted the party out of power.

Mr. Shehu wondered which contented electorate would have voted a performing party out of office.

He explained that if the former ruling party was doing so well, the opposition parties would have found it difficult to defeat a popular ruling party.

Mr. Shehu said that the PDP assumed performance was nothing more than window dressing, and a detachment from reality.

The Presidential spokesman said no economy can grow with corruption, an area in which the

PDP administration demonstrated more competence.

The presidency said criticism for its own sake is not the hallmark of credible opposition.

According to Mr. Shehu, “Nigerians no longer face exploitation at filling stations because the government is taking punitive measures against marketers that punish poor Nigerians.

He noted that queues had disappeared at filling stations, adding that the naira is also enjoying favourable exchange rate”.

The media aide said the Buhari administration had successfully blocked leakages and other avenues for corruption, practices which he said the previous PDP administration lacked the will or the desire to stop.

As a result of the measures to block leakages, he said the Buhari administration has frustrated the efforts by corrupt elements to divert public funds to private pockets.

Mr. Shehu said once the trial of corrupt officials formally begins, “the PDP might no longer have the moral legs to stand on, let alone talk down on Nigerians with fake claims of economic miracles under its most incompetent and grossly purposeless and sleazy administration