The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday,?accused the outgoing Federal Government led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of running the country aground, electing to leave urgent matters of state unattended to. The APC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that President Goodluck Jonathan is handing over a nation in deep crisis, adding that his administration has continued to contrive more crises without making any effort to solve any of them.It appealed to Nigerians not to lose hope, ?despite the daunting challenges they are currently facing in this atmosphere of contrived chaos,? pledging that help is on the way.
Mohammed said: ?In a few days? time, President Jonathan will hand over to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. Never in the history of our country has any government handed over to another a more distressed country: No electricity, no fuel, workers are on strike, billions are owed to state and federal workers, 60 billion dollars are owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded.
?Today, Nigerians are roaming the streets, jerry cans in hand, searching for everything from kerosene to fuel to diesel to power their homes, keep their vehicles on the road and keep their businesses going. They are paying as much as 300 Naira per litre for fuel, if at all they can get it. Yet their government is not saying a word about the situation?.
The APC said that while the Jonathan Administration had ?arrogantly? told Nigerians that it remained in office and in power till May 29th, all it had allegedly been doing is sacking people and making new appointments ?as if it had been deprived of the opportunity to do so in the past six years.?
It stated further: ?They are not interested in how to end the fuel scarcity that has paralyzed the socio-economic lives of Nigerians, they are not interested in how to raise electricity production from its unprecedentedly-low level of 1,327 megawatts, they are not doing anything to end the strike by blue and while collar oil workers, or to stop the impending one.
?They say they are in office till May 29th, but they do not care how workers in 18 states, who are owed a total of 300 billion Naira in salaries under their watch, or federal workers who are owed 400 billion Naira, will be paid. Yet they are running a budget of 1 trillion Naira deficit.?
Mohammed was not done. He stated: ?They have deliberately stopped meeting their obligations to oil marketers, which is now around 200 billion Naira, hence no one is lifting petroleum products anymore. If the current energy crisis is not solved soonest, the telecommunications sector could even be grounded in a matter of days as service providers will have neither electricity nor fuel to power their base stations. Of course the aviation sector has already been left comatose by the fuel crisis.?
Arguing that the whole scenario reeked of sabotage, the APC added that before the ?spin doctors? of the PDP and Jonathan administration distort its message, ?it is important to let Nigerians know that the party (APC) is not engaging in lamentations but simply keeping the citizenry informed of the situation on the ground, with just five days to handover date.It added: ?If we thought the nation was being well managed and there was no problem, we would not have embarked on a campaign of change.
?While we are ready, willing and able to begin to address the mammoth challenges facing us as a nation as soon as we assume office at the centre in a few days? time, we will not hesitate for a second to keep Nigerians informed of how we have been brought to this sorry pass, with a view to avoiding such a tragic turn in the future,? the party said.
It expressed sadness that the nation has been on auto pilot for the past several weeks, as the outgoing administration has shown neither the capacity nor the willingness to resolve any of the crises it has contrived and foisted on the nation.
?This is the most vivid manifestation of the old saying that literally translates to a departing office holder defecating on the chair he is vacating,? APC said
