The All Progressives Congress (APC) has chastised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for making a statement on President Bola Tinubu’s one-year term.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential contender for the 2023 elections, stated that the country’s economy has deteriorated under Tinubu.
The former vice-president stated that, despite high expectations when Tinubu took over as Nigerian president in May, the country is worse off.
Atiku claimed Tinubu had “embarked on a cocktail of policies” with no solid plans to achieve the promised economic reforms.
However, Felix Morka, APC spokesperson, stated in a statement that the former vice-president’s comment dismissing Tinubu’s programmes demonstrates “primordial political envy and crass desperation for power”.
Morka claimed Atiku was “willfully blind to the pace of progress” in the country under Tinubu’s leadership.
The APC spokeswoman stated that Tinubu’s administration has “attracted over $20 billion into the economy” in the past year.
The statement reads:
“Atiku’s self-serving efforts to minimise the bold, genuine and metamorphic policies and interventions of the present administration only smack of primordial political envy and crass desperation for the power that Nigerians have so wisely denied him.”
“The former Vice President lives in an alternate reality of prejudice and unpatriotic desire for Nigeria’s failure so he may scavenge his way to an even more elusive presidency.
“Quite contrary to Atiku’s claim, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has, in its first year in office, attracted over $20 billion into the economy while the stock exchange has ballooned from N18.12 billion in Q1 of 2023 to N93.37 billion in Q1 of 2024, representing an increase of over 400 per cent with an annual economic growth rate leaping from 2.5 per cent to 3.46 per cent.
“Key sectors of manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, solid minerals, e-commerce, and fintech have continued to attract an increased and ceaseless flow of foreign direct investments (FDIs). Yet, Atiku remains willfully blind to the pace of progress that is so self-evident.
“President Tinubu set an audacious target of building a $1 trillion economy in the next few years and has put together a bevvy of experts and professionals and introduced far-reaching policies and programmes to drive the actualization of this desirable economic target.
“The President needs the support and encouragement of Nigerians, not the bile-filled pessimism of partisan Atikus.
“Atiku’s false alarm of an imminent food scarcity boldface ignores the widely acknowledged proactive measures already introduced by President Tinubu to guarantee food security in the country.
“In December 2023, the federal government set a target for the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land across the federation.
“Cultivation of rice, maize, wheat and cassava on over 246,231 hectares of land in 30 states of the federation is in progress in addition to approving massive grants and other incentives to farmers.”