The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has blamed increasing rates of suicide cases and migration among Nigerians on the economic hardships created in the last eight years.
The opposition party mentioned this in its press statement released on Thursday to celebrate its 25th anniversary, while urging “Nigerians not to succumb to hopelessness under the prevailing despairing situation in the country but to remain optimistic in the hope that their democratic mandate will ultimately triumph in the end.”
The party accused the ruling APC government led by President Bola Tinubu of sabotaging the country’s economic growth which they built for more than a decade.
The statement reads: “The PDP in essence, outlook and operation remains the only broad-based, all-embracing Pan-Nigerian political Party birthed on the principles of national unity, freedom, social justice, development and overall wellbeing of citizens; which over the years stands steadfast to its democratic ideology of good governance and citizens’ participation in political leadership.
“Today, the PDP celebrates the resilience of Nigerians in the democratic process and particularly the founding leaders and teeming members of our Party for their sacrificial roles in returning, nurturing and sustaining democracy in our country.
“The belief that power resides with the people is at the core of PDP’s sustained focus on guaranteeing the Rule of Law, adherence to the principle of Separation of Powers, personal freedom of citizens, a free Press, credible electoral process, liberalization of the economy, vast infrastructural development, massive employment and business opportunities among other initiatives that made the PDP years in government the “Nigerian Golden Years.”
“It is on record that the PDP administration, through deft management of the economy, achieved $18bn debt relief from the Paris and London Clubs, consolidated the banking sector, revolutionized the telecommunication sector, revamped the oil and gas, manufacturing, aviation, agriculture, real estate and other critical sectors to turn the inherited moribund economy into one of the fastest growing in the world and handed over a $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th globally) in 2015 to the APC.
“Under the PDP’s result-oriented leadership, our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) grew to over $8b; our Foreign Exchange Reserves grew from $2bn in 1999 to over $40bn in 2014. Today, under the incompetent and corrupt APC administration our FDI plummeted to $-0.19bn in 2022. The APC government had remained silent to reports by JP Morgan that Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Reserves had fallen to $3.7bn as at the end of December 2022.”
The statement claimed further that throughout the PDP governments, Nigeria experienced a stable economy that boosted domestic and international investors’ confidence in all sectors, grew the Nigerian Stock Exchange into one of the most profitable in the world, achieved food security through massive investment in agriculture with increased purchasing power of citizens which ranked Nigeria as a major development hub with Fitch BB rating under the PDP administration.
The statement continued: “Sadly, all the gains achieved by the PDP have been rolled back by the APC, which in a space of eight years, wrecked our economy and turned our nation into the poverty capital of the world with a frightening 35% unemployment rate, where hunger, starvation, strange diseases and sudden deaths now ravage our citizens.
“Under the vicious, corrupt and incompetent APC’s watch, major multinational companies are exiting Nigeria; the Naira has fallen from N197 to US$1 under the PDP to abysmal over N900 to US$1; petrol which sold at N87 per liter by 2015 now sells for over N600 per liter. This is in addition to multiple harsh tariffs, taxes and levies imposed on citizens by the APC administration.”
“Life in Nigeria under the APC has become very unbearable such that Nigerians are now resorting to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options. The fraudulent APC administration has succeeded in mortgaging the future of our nation with reckless accumulation of N85 trillion foreign debt with no corresponding development project to show for it,” the statement added.
