Leadership: Peter Obi, a loquacious, disruptive back seat driver, says APC

*The All Progressives Congress lampoons Peter Obi over his recent ‘manipulative narratives’ on the Nigerian economy, stating that economic challenges and hardship are now a stark reality and arduous task for most countries of the world, which require collective patriotic collaboration to resolve

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Against the backdrop of planned nationwide protest slated to begin August 1, 2024, the ruling All Progressives Congress has accused Mr. Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 General Elections of “blatant distortions and misinformation” aimed at mobilising outrage against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

Felix Morka, Esq., National Publicity Secretary of APC, who alleged this in a statement Tuesday, July 23, 2024, said Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, in the South-East Nigeria, had “continued, unabashedly, to showcase his obsessive devotion to self-promotion against the best interest of Nigeria.”

The party also noted that Obi’s latest statement on the country’s economic situation in the West African country is an admixture of half-truths, blatant distortions and misinformation calculated to mobilise outrage against the All Progressives Congress  government of President Tinubu.

Morka also stated: “His (Obi’s) warped conclusion that Nigeria’s economic crisis was caused by nine years of APC-led administration is a highly revisionist, dishonest, distorted and deliberately misleading assessment of the country’s economic trajectory in the last decade.

“He opined, rather mischievously, that no efforts were being made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to tackle poverty and unemployment in the country.”

The National Publicity Secretary of APC further noted: “The facts tell a far more complex and different story.

“The country’s economic decline began under the watch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with GDP growth plummeting from 7.98% in 2010 to 2.79% in 2015. “And since 2015, the global oil price crash, geopolitical tensions, climate change, global COVID pandemic and rising population have all taken a toll on Nigeria’s economy that is almost entirely dependent on drastically reduced oil export earnings.”

He said the growth recorded during the PDP years was due entirely to high price of crude oil and increased government spending that it supported.

“It is noteworthy that between 2007-2014, Nigeria earned $531.2 billion under the PDP, compared to $287.8 billion under APC between 2015-2022.

“This drastically reduced export earnings under the APC administration was even further stretched thin by the country’s population surge from 184 million in 2015 to 229 million in 2024.

“Despite the huge revenues available to it, successive PDP administrations neglected to address underlying structural challenges and distortions in the economy leaving the country vulnerable to economic shocks and volatility,” he stated.

The ruling APC equally averred “had the PDP undertaken a sustained programme of economic reform as President Tinubu is currently engaged, Nigeria’s economic situation would be far better than it is today.

“But in his selfish political desperation, Obi will never acknowledge the complexity of the causation of our economic challenges but would rather attempt to scapegoat the APC administration for all of the country’s economic ills while turning a blind eye to the bold and thoughtful policy interventions of President Tinubu’s administration.”

According to the party, the current administration’s focused and determined efforts to tackle the country’s challenges through diversification, massive infrastructure development, social welfare, agricultural revolution and sustained improvements in national security are certain to accelerate Nigeria’s resurgence, create jobs and lift millions of our people out of poverty.

Morka stated: “Quite contrary to Obi’s jaundiced and gloomy analysis, in the last one year alone, the country has attracted over $20 billion into the economy, aside recording an all-time high N6.52 trillion

trade surplus in the first quarter of 2024 marking a positive shift from a long history of trade deficits.

“Despite clearing the backlog of the foreign exchange debts owed foreign airlines and other economic actors by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the nation’s foreign reserves has continued to expand, hitting upwards of $34 billion, the highest in recent times.

“Capital inflow into the country increased by 66.27 percent this year alone.”

The party also said certain “notable financial experts and the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report that for the first time in our economic history, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) crossed the 100,000 benchmark this year, making the Nigerian Stock Exchange currently about the most profitable capital market in the world with Returns on Investment (RoI) as high as 22.90 percent.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that the nation’s economy will have a 3.1 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2024, one of the highest projections for any African country.”

He noted that initiatives, such as the Credit Corps, Students Loan, the newly approved Minimum Wage, the construction of 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, and many more are tailor-made by the President Tinubu’s to combat poverty, and expand economic opportunities for Nigerians.

The Publicity Secretary stated: “Mr. Obi is a loquacious and disruptive back seat driver who has assigned himself an ignoble role of an embittered loser and spoiler.

“Economic challenges and hardship are a stark reality of most countries of the world today, both developed and developing. “It is an existential condition that must be tackled and transformed. This is an arduous task that requires collective patriotic collaboration.”

Morka added: “Mr. Obi must know that inflaming passion and mobilising outrage through false and manipulative narratives are not legitimate tools of opposition politics. “Expecting President Tinubu to accomplish total transformation of Nigeria in one year, a feat he failed miserably to accomplish in eight years as Governor of Anambra state, is the height of disgraceful hypocrisy.

“President Tinubu remains focused and committed to building lasting blocks of economic prosperity for Nigeria.”

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