The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo of falsifying financial templates with claims that the debt profile of the country was inherited from the past administration.
The party also said that some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are also working for the Presidential candidate of the PDP.
The party further disclosed that it parades an unbeatable Presidential candidate with the highest demography of supporters and volunteer groups, cutting across Nigeria’s voting population in all the nooks and crannies of our country.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja during a Press Conference on the state of the nation.
He accused the Vice President of being economical with the truth by comparing domestic debt in naira and convert the external debt to naira to get national debt.
According to him, “In the desperation to divert attention from the failures of the Buhari administration, Vice President Osinbajo falsified financial templates to argue that this government has no blame in the accumulation of debts under its watch.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that the Buhari administration has accumulated more debts that any other administration in the history of our nation.”
Exposing details of breakdown of the nations dabt and its incremental pattern, he said,
“Our dear Vice President forgot that Nigerians are aware that between 2016 to 2017, under President Buhari, our annual borrowing was about N3.7 trillion as against the N1.04 trillion annual borrowing perimeter between 2008 to 2015. Between 1999 to 2007, the annual borrowing perimeter was as low as N96 billion naira.
“To deceive the public and divert attention to the alarming borrowing spree of the Buhari administration, the APC-led Federal Government converted domestic debt borrowed in naira under its watch, to the US dollar so that the very high exchange rate will make the domestic debt look smaller in dollars. This is a deceptive picture because domestic debt was accumulated in naira and not in dollar’’.
An appropriate comparison will further show that the annual growth rate of public debt was only 0.44 percent under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, 20.14 percent under the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administration and 29.6 percent under President Buhari.”
He also said that the party and its Presidential candidate have continued to receive solidarity messages from professional bodies, labour unions, major socio-cultural groups, religious bodies, traditional institutions, student groups, international organizations. He added that even top members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are working for the success of Atiku.
He said, “Today, our Presidential candidate has the highest demography of supporters and volunteer groups, cutting across an overwhelming majority of Nigeria’s voting population in all the nooks and crannies of our country.
“Also, since the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as our Presidential flagbearer, our membership strength has soared with millions of hitherto apolitical Nigerians daily joining our fold alongside others crossing over, in droves, from other political parties, particularly, the APC.
“Nigerians are rallying on the platform of the repositioned PDP to elect a visionary President with the capacity, goodwill and readiness to restore our nation to the path of national cohesion, political stability and economic prosperity; which qualities they have identified in Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, former Governor Peter Obi.
“This consensus transcends ethnicity, religion and partisan considerations as the PDP stands shoulder to shoulder with the people to achieve lasting healing for our nation.”
The party’s spokesperson said that the party will campaign on issues. He added that all support groups will join hands with the party to ensure a coordinated campaign.
He said, “Our Presidential campaign will therefore be issue-based. We will focus on issues that have direct bearing on the welfare of Nigerians who have suffered enough hardship, pain and anguish in the last three and half years under an insensitive, incompetent and disconnected administration that cares less about them.
“Our campaign will focus on solutions. The PDP will not allow itself to be dragged down into the marshes of propaganda, smear campaign, lies and deceit of the fading, discredited and rejected APC.
“We will focus on issues of putting our people back to work by creating opportunities for the youths and the over 30 million Nigerians who have lost their means of livelihood because of the harsh economic policies of the Buhari administration.
“The PDP and our Presidential candidate will focus on ensuring security and ending the daily bloodletting in our country. We will focus on how to increase the purchasing power of Nigerians, as well as revamp our economy through strategic intervention in critical sectors, especially, power, food security, road and railway infrastructure, education, energy, health, water provision, and labour issues among others, which have been wrecked by the Buhari administration.
“The PDP will proffer direction to reduce cost of governance and release funds for development purposes; cut harsh tariff and tax regimes, eradicate corruption and engender enabling environment for business to thrive in a manner that will strengthen our naira and restore investor-confidence in our economy.
“Our campaign will therefore be strategically centralized and streamlined to ensure effectiveness and responsibility in our messages content, dissemination and general engagement with Nigerians at all levels. In this regard all support groups for our presidential campaign are directed to ensure that their operations and activities are approved and coordinated under the direct supervision of the party.”
