Buhari’s economic blueprint : Atiku bombs Lai Mohammed

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Presidential candidate, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation said the Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed lied.

Lai at a press conference on Thursday described Atiku’s economic blueprint as a poor copy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s model.

Mohammed said “Let’s start with infrastructure. The former vice-president said, in his Economic Blueprint, that ‘rebuilding infrastructure and reducing infrastructure deficit will enhance the carrying capacity of the economy and unleash growth and wealth creation.

“No one understands this better than this administration. Even our worst critics will agree that our record on infrastructure development is next to none in the history of this country”.

Reacting to this, Atiku’s Campaign Organisation in a statement, Thursday said the minister was making a barren attempt to catalogue perceived achievements of the current All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

The PDP Presidential candidate campaign organisation berated the Minister for lying against Atiku, adding that “he did the unbelievable by claiming that the policy documents and proposals espoused by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, our presidential candidate, are the version of the economic blueprint of the APC.

The campaign organisation also described Lai’s claim as a tsunami of lies.

It added that ” it has been openly acknowledged that this current administration came into power without a single sheet of paper of what could be called a policy document. Nigerians are aware that in both 2015 and 2019, it took the APC six months and three months, respectively to constitute a cabinet.

“Perhaps the Minister might be interested in telling Nigerians if it is also part of the APC manifesto to foot drag in forming a government, it added.

The Campaign Organisation explained that the first economic recession that the country experienced in 2016, which happens to be the worst economic decline in thirty years, happened primarily because the APC administration applied what can be called a catch-up strategy to the early signals of the recession.

It insisted that the tenure of the APC has been nothing but a sheer waste of time.

The Campaign Organisation also lamented that the catch-up economic strategy of the ruling party has left the people more malnourished, sick and disillusioned.

The statement read in part ” the poor records of the APC in the areas of economic management, jobs creation, education, security and in virtually all spheres of our national life is the reason why there is a lot of anxiety about the 2023 general election. Indeed, it needs to be stressed that next year’s election will be a referendum on the APC and it is not in doubt that the ruling party in Nigeria will present a global case study of how a political party can lose popular goodwill within a short period.

“Nigerians of all hues, both the rich and those that are not; the educated and those who are not; the elderly and the young are all witnesses to the scandal that the APC has become in the art of governance.

“Nigerians are rallied in their frustration in the APC and the promise of a better future that our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar holds for the country after his victory in the 2023 presidential election.

“What Minister Lai Mohammed reeled out as achievements of the APC is a compilation of the reasons why Nigerians have roundly rejected the ruling party. It’s nothing but a testimonial of failures. Conversely, what His Excellency Atiku Abubakar presented to the organised private sector in Lagos State last week represents the hopes of a new beginning, which Nigerians eagerly anticipate.

“Trying to associate the Atiku policy plans with the failed policies of the APC is the comical height of Minister Lai Mohammed’s aversion for the truth.

“It is contempt not just against the PDP and our presidential candidate, but also to the whole nation. Lai Mohammed must apologize to Nigerians for such insensitive onslaught against truth in broad daylight”.