The All Progressives Congress, APC, has on Sunday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of handing over a nation in deep crisis occasioned by lack of electricity, fuel and delayed payment of workers’ salaries.
Alleging that the Jonathan administration, which is in its twilight, has continued to contrive more crises without making any effort to resolve any of them, the party averred that “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”.
The APC, in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, however urged Nigerians not to lose hope, despite the daunting challenges they were currently facing in “this atmosphere of contrived chaos”, assuring that help was on the way.
According to the statement, “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.”
APC held that while the Jonathan administration has “arrogantly” told Nigerians that it remains in charge until May 29, all it has been doing was sacking people and making new appointments “as if it has been deprived of the opportunity to do so in the past six years.”
The incoming governing party regretted that the present government, “is not interested in how to end the fuel scarcity that has paralysed 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 29, but they do not care how workers in 18 states, who are owed a total of N300bn in salaries under their watch, or federal workers, who are owed N400bn will be paid. Yet they are running a budget of N1tr deficit.
“They have deliberately stopped meeting their obligations to oil marketers, which is now around N200bn; 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. The whole scenario reeks of sabotage!” APC asserted that before PDP and “Jonathan administration’s spin doctors 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 the handover date.
According to the party, “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.”
While expressing sadness that the nation had been on auto pilot for the past several weeks, APC noted that the outgoing administration had shown neither the capacity nor the willingness to resolve any of the crises it had “contrived and foisted” on the nation.
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