The Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Comrade Jerry Obasi, on Tuesday pronounced Nigeria’s economy “clinically dead”, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to urgently seek the help of economic surgeons.
Obasi, who was the APGA’s deputy governorship candidate in the last general election in Ebonyi State, accused the President of junketing around the world whereas his house was on fire.
Speaking in an interview with DAILY POST in Enugu, the APGA chieftain urged the government to convoke an economic summit in order to save the country from descending further into the abyss.
He spoke thus: “What is going on this country is quite unfortunate; I have been on the queue for two days to get fuel, in Nigeria, the fourth oil producing country in the entire world, whereas in non-oil producing countries, there are no queues.
“In fact, I supported Buhari in this election, I had to go against my family and party to support Buhari in that election, because of the state of affairs under Jonathan, considering the fact that Enugu-Onitsha Express Road was impassable for six years, and we had a President; also Enugu-Port Harcourt Road was not done, all the roads in the South-East and South-South were not done for the six years, I was using these small indices because Igbos are traders, so they need these roads; I got disappointed and I said I was not going to vote for Jonathan, he disappointed my people, six years would have been enough. To me it was crass failure, even when it is believed today by Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora that Buhari has failed, his failure can’t make Jonathan to have succeeded.
“The truth remains that the economy is in a very bad shape, the economy has been battered, it has been given a technical knock-out, the type that Tyson used to give to his opponents in his time, the economy has gone extinct, and just like the statement made by Lai Mohammed that the economy has overtaken the government, though he has come back to retract that, but he has made a confessional statement, because tomorrow he will still tell Nigerians that he said it; the economy to me, has been destroyed, you cannot bring a clerk in a micro finance bank in the UK to come and superintend over Nigeria’s economy, it is not going to take us anywhere. Nigeria needs an economist in the mold of Okonjo Iweala, an economist in the stature of Oby Ezekwesili, in the stature of Soludo, in the stature of Kaku Idika Kaku. These appointments of Buhari that are more political and sentimentally minded will take us to the abyss. The government is already collapsing on him, and I will advise once again for him to convoke an economic summit, because Nigerian and her economy is in comatose, it is in an intensive care unit of economic hospital that also needs intensive care by economic surgeons, but if we go the way we are going, I see dark days ahead, I see terrible days ahead.
“Are we to talk about the N5,000 promise, we are not talking about the fuel they said will be sold an N40, even at 180, you cannot but fuel anywhere, if you go to Malawi, South-Africa, Ghana, you cannot see queue, so it is unfortunate, the president should wake up, he should reduce his level of travelling, you don’t visit economies that are stable whereas at home, the economy is dying on your lapse, let us come out of these sentiments, the APC should understand now that it is the ruling government, may be they forgot that they are ruling, still sounding like the opposition. Buhari’s appointments are summersault appointments; you see a professor working under a first degree holder, let us look inside, management of the country is different from a religious body, it is different from a tribal organization, it is different from the opposition mentality, it is so far so bad, all of us can see it, we can’t but food. The country has become too hot for all of us.”
Also speaking on the controversial Anambra Central Senatorial election, Obasi had this to say: “The Anambra scenario is a very remarkable one, it is also a pitiable one, there has been a cardinal rule in the way elections are conducted in Nigeria; there has never been a day window was created for a strange person to participate in a rerun that he never participated in the first election, it has never happened in the history of election in Nigeria; so, why now? Why in Anambra State? Why in Anambra Central? Why will a lower court circumvent the decision of superior court? Peter Obi who went to court did not participate in that election; by the time that election was held, Peter Obi was just about one month in the PDP, among all the actors that participated in the PDP primary, Obi was not one of them. So, even if the court want to come against its own process, or its own leanings, the only one that is not supposed to be in that election is Peter Obi; he is not supposed to be part of that election because he was not part of that process ab-initio, he was part of the primary of either of Emeakayi group or Oguebego group, so from where did the Federal High Court derive the power to give such frivolous judgement?
“We are all Nigerians and we are all stakeholders in this business, are we now saying that a court can now come up with a ruling that will bring the electoral law into public odium? so, I feel so miffed, I feel so shocked, I feel so confused, it gives me sleepless night, each time I remember the happenings in Anambra State, the court is now father Christmas. But let us watch and see if the court will destroy the electoral law.
“If there is anybody who is not supposed to seek participation in that election, it is Peter Obi; are we now saying that the electoral act has been destroyed in such a way that the PDP will now be allowed to conduct a fresh primary; it is not even Ekwunife or Ani Okonkwo, they are the two persons in that drama; Obi is not a product of any of the primaries; so, from where will court derive such power to include Obi as a candidate in that election, INEC should remain firm in its functions, let us improve our democracy, let there not be special persons, let their not be sacred cows, let there be no special involvements of personalities; if there is any party that has the opportunity of joining in that election, it is the APC, because Ngige is not dead, he is alive.
“So the issue of Obi is out of it, it is a huge joke. Even though I respect Obi as the former BoT chairman of my party, APGA, as the former leader of my great party and as one of the leaders of thought of Ndigbo, having been a former governor, but we can’t truncate the electoral process just to please one person; but I’m also a little bit disturbed because the way Buhari suffered rigging and election maneuvering in the past, he is not supposed to superintend over election manipulation.
“Obi’s issue in this case is stillborn, it is dead on arrival, I’m not advocating that APGA should go into this election unchallenged, but it should be lawful; we don’t feel extraordinarily challenged, but the right thing should be done; we don’t lose sleep, APGA is highly fortified to run for that election in Anambra State, the governor is doing pretty well and considering the business of the day in the Senate, which is legislation, Umeh will be a better lawmaker than Obi; we are not extra-ordinarily challenged by Obi’s involvement, all we are saying is that he came too late, nobody jumps into the pitch to play when the referee has ended the match. It is late, Obi should wait for 2019, but on the issue of Anambra rerun, Obi is way out of it.
“All these are happening because the powers that be have seen that if the right thing is done, Umeh will win that rerun. I want to recall that in the first election, Umeh scored 83,000 votes, the beneficiary of the outcome of that ill-fated election, Ekwunife, did not score above our candidate, Umeh, with any wild margin, even with all the manipulation; the APC candidate, Ngige, came a distant third with about 23,000 votes; I have difficulty that our 16-year-old baby called democracy, we are still breast feeding it, it is unfortunate, it is shameful that we are still nursing a 16-year-old baby, our democracy is no longer nascent, a 16-year-old child is already preparing to go to the university, some legends, like Michael Jackson, entered Guinness Book of records at the age of 11, but we are here still breast feeding a 16-year-old child, called our democracy.
“Giving the election in Anambra State, we smell a rat; but it is unfortunate that those who benefited from the democracy are trying to truncate it. The Army will be laughing at us now because they have watched us for 16 years and we have done so badly. Look at the way we are mismanaging the entire democratic process, it is unfortunate, we are watching and we are waiting, but the fact remains that we have to be very cautions.”
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