The All Progressives Congress, APC, has slammed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for allegedly politicising the recent poverty reports by a United States of America think-tank.
It said the PDP lacked the moral right to criticise the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government over the poverty index report, saying the PDP failed to achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals throughout its 16 years in power.
The APC also claimed that a similar report by the Fitch International in 2016 reported a “constant decline” in Nigeria’s poverty index since 2011 culminating in Nigeria’s 60% poverty rating by 2015.
A statement by the ruling party’s National Spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, reads: “We also find it quite amusing, the PDP’s ill informed attempt to politicise the recent poverty reports by a United States think-tank.
“Of course we do not expect the PDP to be aware that the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics releases report on poverty rates every year to help the work of policy planners and not to play politics. The only difference however is that such reports were never allowed seeing the lights of the day under the PDP administration.
“Yet, this is the same party under whose Nigeria was not able to achieve a single one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which they conveniently turned to another racket. For avoidance of doubts, we refer the PDP to a similar report by the Fitch International in 2016, which reported that which reported a “constant decline” since 2011 culminating in Nigeria’s 60% poverty rating by 2015.
“The challenge of poverty is a global challenge and not a competition among countries or a race for the bottom. Our party acknowledges this challenge and will continue to work hard with both local and international partners to find solutions. What we will not do is to exploit the reality of poverty to create another ineffectual ‘palliative’ that will end up as another slush fund or ‘job for the boys.'”
Comments