- Atiku had claimed that Nigeria’s economy has worsened under Tinubu’s administration.
- The APC urged Nigerians to support President Tinubu’s economic policies and ignore Atiku’s negative comments.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has criticised former vice-president Atiku Abubakar over his comment appraising one year in office of President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement on Tuesday, Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, said the nation’s economy has worsened under Tinubu.
The former vice-president said despite high hopes when Tinubu assumed the reins last May, Nigeria is worse off.
Abubakar said Tinubu has “embarked on a cocktail of policies” with no concrete plans to achieve the remodelling of the economy he promised.
In a statement, Felix Morka, APC spokesperson, said the former vice-president’s comment belittling Tinubu’s policies shows “primordial political envy and crass desperation for power”.
Morka said Atiku is “willfully blind to the pace of progress” of the country under Tinubu’s administration.
The APC spokesperson, without providing evidence, said Tinubu’s administration has “attracted over $20 billion into the economy” in the last one year.
“Atiku’s self-serving efforts to minimise the bold, genuine and metamorphic policies and interventions of the present administration only smacks of primordial political envy and crass desperation for the power that Nigerians have so wisely denied him,” the statement reads.
“The former Vice President lives in an alternate reality of prejudice and unpatriotic desire for Nigeria’s failure so he may scavenge his way to an even more elusive presidency.
“Quite contrary to Atiku’s claim, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has, in its first year in office, attracted over $20 billion into the economy while the stock exchange has ballooned from N18.12 billion in Q1 of 2023 to N93.37 billion in Q1 of 2024, representing an increase of over 400 per cent with an annual economic growth rate leaping from 2.5 percent to 3.46 percent.
“Key sectors of manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, solid minerals, e-commerce and fintech have continued to attract increased and ceaseless flow of foreign direct investments (FDIs). Yet, Atiku remains willfully blind to the pace of progress that is so self-evident.
“President Tinubu set an audacious target of building a $1 trillion economy in the next few years and has put together a bevy of experts and professionals, and introduced far-reaching policies and programmes to drive the actualization of this desirable economic target.
“The President needs the support and encouragement of Nigerians, not the bile-filled pessimism of partisan Atikus.
“Atiku’s false alarm of an imminent food scarcity boldface ignores the widely acknowledged proactive measures already introduced by President Tinubu to guarantee food security in the country.
“In December 2023, the federal government set a target for the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land across the federation.
“Cultivation of rice, maize, wheat and cassava on over 246,231 hectares of land in 30 states of the federation is in progress in addition to approving massive grants and other incentives to farmers.”