Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, berated the Federal Government for allegedly attempting to hoodwink Nigerians over the financial crisis in Feb country.
The PDP in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, accused the government of allegedly concealing officially documented data on debts and state of the country’s economy.
It noted that it was public knowledge that the country’s economy has been allegedly mismanaged as a result of excessive borrowings by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The PDP, which was reacting to the Federal Government dismissal of Atiku Abubakar concerns on the economy, said it was “scandalous, disgraceful and highly irresponsible that the Buhari-led administration attempted to disprove already known facts, as presented by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, that our nation’s debt profile, under the Buhari administration, has risen to 99 percent of the revenue profile in the first quarter of 2020.
“It is reprehensible that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would deny that its first quarter 2020 financial report stated that Federal Government’s retained revenue stood at N950.56 billion, while the total debt services was N943.12 billion.
“In his denial, the minister forgot that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy document from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning which showed the figures was already in the public domain.
“For the avoidance of doubt, tables 3.4 and 4.3 of the report respectively, state that “as at end of March 2020, FGN’s retained revenue was N950.56 billion”, and that “of the expenditure, N943.12 billion was for debt service”’
It added that the response by the Federal Government to issues raised by Atiku has further exposed alleged falsehood and concealments in the present administration.
“The fact is that the Buhari administration has destroyed our economy with accumulation of debts to the extent that the debt profile has risen to 99 percent of our retained revenue. No amount of whitewash by the Minister of Information can distort this fact.
“It is equally inexcusable for the minister to claim that the debts taken by the administration was meant to address the poverty it brought to our nation, when it cannot point to any tangible project it had done in any critical sector apart from turning our nation into the poverty capital of the world.
“It is therefore clear that with the prevailing situation and the refusal by the Buhari-led Federal Government to take responsibility for its actions, our economy is heading towards the brinks,” the PDP stated.
It admonished the government to take responsibility for the economic crisis and the country’s huge debt burden.
According to the PDP, “it will be unpardonable, if after eight years, all that Nigerians will remember the Buhari administration for is a basketful of morsels of lies, huge debts, humongous corruption, escalated bloodletting, hunger, starvation and awful living conditions that were unknown to Nigerians in our national history.”