Why Ahmed Makarfi-led PDP faction said FG’s economic recovery plan dead on arrival
More insights have emerged on why the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the economic recovery plan unveiled last Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari as “dead on arrival.”
In a statement issued weekend by the spokesman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, made available to Business Hilights, the party based its argument on the fact that the current administration waited for two years into a four year tenure before unveiling an economic plan and wondered when the plan will be fully implemented.
PDP went further to submit that said the government lacked viable economic blueprint, and maintained that the delay in coming up with a blueprint on time brought about the current economic recession in the land.
Continuing, PDP said “It is on record that we alerted the nation after the 2015 general elections on the empty promises of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and cautioned the party to concentrate on governance”.
“The blackmail and blame-game by the APC was, and still is a cover up for its obvious lack of plan. Instead, the APC ran our economy into recession after wasting two years witch-hunting PDP members and perceived enemies of government without paying attention to building on the robust achievements of the PDP.
“Nigerians can testify to the hardship, pains, starvation, hunger and agony inflicted on the people by the ineptitude of the APC administration.
“The recovery and growth plan is a proposal which requires implementation but we are worried because of the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari during the launch when he said, ‘I want to assure all Nigerians that we are approaching the solution to our economic challenges with the same will and commitment we have demonstrated in the fight against corruption, terrorism and militancy.
“It is therefore instructive to note that if the Economic Recovery Plan will follow the way of the anti-corruption war so far, then, the plan document is dead on arrival.
“We are equally worried on how the APC Government intends to really actualize this lofty Plan (if it’s not the usual lies to the people) given the low state of Nigerian economy where government is borrowing domestically and internationally to fund its operations. The 2017 Budget is still a mirage.
“To buttress, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has declared that Nigeria is spending 66 per cent of its interest revenue on debt. In other words, the Federal Government has only 34 per cent of its revenue to tackle capital and recurrent expenditures and development,” Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the PDP said.
Efforts to get the views of the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff lead faction on the matter failed at press time.
