The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has berated the Muhammadu Buhari-led government over alleged attempts to hoodwink Nigerians by concealing officially documented data on debts and the alarming state of the nation’s economy.
The party in a statement on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the nation’s economy has been mismanaged arising from excessive borrowings by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The PDP described as scandalous, disgraceful and highly irresponsible that the Buhari-led administration allegedly attempted to disprove already known facts, as presented by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, that the nation’s debt profile, under the Buhari administration, has risen to 99 percent of the revenue profile in the first quarter of 2020.
“It is reprehensible that the federal government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would deny that its first quarter 2020 financial report stated that federal government’s retained revenue stood at N950.56 billion, while the total debt services was N943.12 billion.
“In his denial, the minister forgot that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy document from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning which showed the figures was already in the public domain,” the party said.
“It will be unpardonable, if after eight years, all that Nigerians will remember the Buhari administration for is a basketful of morsels of lies, huge debts, humongous corruption, escalated bloodletting, hunger, starvation and awful living conditions that were unknown to Nigerians in our national history,” the party said.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the scenarios painted by a former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on the country’s debt profile as “nothing but scaremongering anchored on a false premise“.
He said while the FG welcomes constructive criticism, such must be based on verifiable facts rather than conjectures and innuendos.
