The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the attacks on it by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) would not endear the main opposition party to Nigerians.
The ruling APC also stated that the ADC did not recognise itself as a political party and had not articulated a single alternative policy position.
APC added that condemning the APC and its policies has become ADC’s operating manifesto, with absolutely nothing to offer by its power-mongering leaders.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, stated this in a statement issued on Saturday, reacting to the ADC’s claims that the ruling party had impoverished Nigerians.
The ruling party stressed that ADC continued to wallow in the idea that its empty attacks would endear the party to Nigerians.
Morka noted that ADC’s attempt to spin a recent report presented at the Agora Policy dialogue indicating a rise of poverty rate of 63 per cent from 49 per cent as a “damning verdict on this administration’s economic policies”, speaks either to its shocking ignorance of economic policy or its wilful blindness to the justification for, and transformative impacts of, ongoing economic reforms.
He noted that the report that the ADC sought to politicise cheaply was categorical about the imperative of the reforms meant to correct age-long and crippling structural distortions in the economy.
The ruling party’s spokesperson said it was a matter of national consensus that the fuel subsidy and foreign exchange regimes, as they were operated before May 29, 2023, had become an existential threat to the country’s economic survival.
He emphasised that removing or drastically reforming both systems had long been on the national agenda. Still, previous administrations could not muster the political will to do so, largely due to concerns about the transient economic hardship the reforms would inevitably impose on Nigerians.
Morka recalled that President Bola Tinubu announced the end of fuel subsidy on his inauguration as President and subsequently harmonised the multiple foreign exchange regimes.
He maintained that these bold and historic policy shifts unshackled Nigeria from the throes of economic stagnation and disintegration, giving our country a fighting chance to build back a stronger, more resilient, and prosperous economy.
Morka added: “Clearly, the ADC does not recognise itself as a political party. The ADC has not articulated a single alternative policy position or prescription for Nigerians.
“Condemning the APC and its policies has become its operating manifesto with absolutely nothing to offer by itself or by its power-mongering leaders.
“The ADC continues to wallow in the idea that its empty attacks will somehow endear the party to Nigerians. But Nigerians are, by far, smarter than that. They know the party that’s working for them and those that are only shooting the breeze and disturbing the airwaves like the ADC.
“The fuel subsidy removal represents one of the most consequential fiscal policy decisions in the country’s recent history.
“For decades, the fuel subsidy regime placed a devastating burden on public finances, gulping trillions of Naira, upwards of 90 percent of total revenue, annually, while delivering limited benefits to ordinary Nigerians.”
Morka stressed that the fuel subsidy regime enabled widespread inefficiencies, corrupt and fraudulent dealings, large-scale fuel smuggling across borders, and enrichment of middlemen and import cartels to the detriment of Nigerians.
He said the regime was a gaping fiscal hole that drained resources that are now being redirected to vital sectors such as infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and social development under the present APC-led administration.
Adedayo Akinwale
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