APC stretching limits of Nigerians – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has overstretched the limits of Nigerians by allegedly trivializing and politicizing the frightening unemployment level under its watch, saying the ruling party should be ready to face the consequences ahead of “its fizzling” before 2023.

The PDP, in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said by attempting to distort and muffle facts on unemployment, which were already in the public domain, the APC has confirmed that it remained an Automated Lying Machine (ALM) which has never been interested in the welfare of Nigerians.

The PDP said it was shameful that in its attempt to deny that the number of unemployed persons and job losses across the formal and informal sectors had surge under its administration, the APC forgot that the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, had earlier disclosed that unemployment rate was at a frightening 23.1 percent while raising alarm that the rate would hit a devastating 33.5 percent in the new year, 2020.

“The APC also forgot that the minister, Ngige, while declaring open a two-day workshop on high unemployment rate earlier in the year, reportedly described the situation as scary and further alerted that apart from the swelling unemployment rate, underemployment had also surged to 16.6 percent.

“The APC, also chose not to remember that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in an earlier report, stated that 16 million Nigerians (which has now risen to 18 million) were unemployed, 18 million more were underemployed while another 27.44 million, reportedly refused to work in 2016 for various reasons not unrelated to frustration in the polity under the APC administration.

“It is completely unpardonable that rather than accepting the truth and seeking for solution to the looming unemployment Armageddon, the APC seeks to trivialize and politicize a serious national problem,” the party said.