The All Progressives Congress (APC) has responded to former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi’s continuous criticism of its economic policies, which have led to increased living expenses across the country.
Obi called for urgent solutions to the nation’s economic crisis on Monday, highlighting the disparity between Nigeria’s economic performance in the early years of its democratic rebirth and its current state.
In a statement released on Tuesday by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the party argued that Obi’s critique was based on an inaccurate assessment of the nation’s economic trajectory over the past decade.
According to the party, Obi’s comment is an admixture of half truths, blatant distortions and misinformation calculated to mobilise outrage against it and government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Expecting President Tinubu to accomplish total transformation of Nigeria in one year, a feat he (Obi) failed miserably to accomplish in eight years as Governor of Anambra state, is the height of disgraceful hypocrisy.
“President Tinubu remains focused and committed to building lasting blocks of economic prosperity for Nigeria,” the APC emphasised.
Obi had insisted that Nigeria’s economic crisis was caused by nine years of APC-led administration adding that no efforts were being made by the administration to tackle poverty and unemployment in the country.
The statement from APC reads, “The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections and former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has continued, unabashedly, to showcase his obsessive devotion to self promotion against the best interest of Nigeria.
“The facts tell a far more complex and different story. The country’s economic decline began under the watch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with GDP growth plummeting from 7.98 per cent in 2010 to 2.79 per cent in 2015. And since 2015, the global oil price crash, geopolitical tensions, climate change, global COVID pandemic and rising population have all taken a toll on Nigeria’s economy that is almost entirely dependent on drastically reduced oil export earnings.
“The growth recorded during the PDP years was due entirely to high price of crude oil and increased government spending that it supported. It is noteworthy that between 2007-2014, Nigeria earned $531.2 billion under the PDP, compared to $287.8 billion under APC between 2015-2022. This drastically reduced export earnings under the APC administration was even further stretched thin by the country’s population surge from 184 million in 2015 to 229 million in 2024.
