Faced with a rash of criticisms from Nigerians over its lacklustre performance after over a year in office, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has admitted that it cannot fix the country’s ailing economy overnight.
The party said that it was elected by Nigerians to do the impossible, stressing that it has no magic wand to do that immediately as expected by the electorate.
Prominent Nigerians, including the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and eminent priest, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, had recently criticised the Federal Government’s economic policies and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to retrace his steps.
Sanusi, a former CBN Governor, said the country’s economy was being run aground by “voodoo economists”, demagogues and other “unqualified, unlicensed drivers”. He urged Buhari to retrace his steps or risk ending up in the same way as the previous administration which his government was busy blaming for their own woes.
While Soludo asked the APC to deliver the change it promised, or forget re-election in 2019, Cardinal Okogie, in a personal letter he wrote to the President, said that Nigerians are suffering and urged Buhari to act fast.
In an apparent reaction to these mounting criticisms, the leadership of the APC on Tuesday in Abuja pleaded for patience, declaring that the economic challenges facing the country were enormous.
Through its Deputy National Chairman, Chief Segun Oni, the APC said that Nigerians must exercise patience with it in getting the economy back on track.
Oni told reporters at the party’s secretariat yesterday in Abuja that the APC inherited a battered economy from the past administration of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), declaring that it would take time to revive the economy.
Oni, a former Governor of Ekiti State, linked money-bag politicians whose intent was to destabilise the Buhari administration, to the incessant attacks and invasion of communities by Fulani herdsmen.
He admitted that the public was right to have expected quick fixes for the economy, but said that in reality, there was no magic way out of Nigeria’s present economic problem.
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His words: “Well, the public is right to expect magic from us, but the truth is that there is no magical way out of the problem on ground for Nigeria. The economy was traumatised by a government whose only agenda was to win another round, therefore, everything that they could put into trying to win a second round, even bastardising the economy, were done and we are all in this mess.
“Now, fortunately for them, I would say, they are not there any longer. The reality on ground is that if the previous government were in power by now, Nigeria would have packed up; may be many of us would have been refugees. So, it is very easy not to remember where we are coming from.
“Yes, we were elected to do the impossible; we will do our best; I just want to plead that people should give us more time.
“This economy must work; we must get Nigeria back, but it is not as quick as anybody imagined. So, people are entitled to their expectations; we as a government will do our best to ensure that the end would justify the means. We are not elected to run Nigeria for one year or two years; we are elected to run Nigeria for four years and before we get to an appreciable length of time, I am sure that we would begin to see very obvious changes”.
On the rampaging Fulani herdsmen, Oni said that “this, personally worries me because these gunmen who suddenly became so notorious and invading villages are people that have always been around. But my guess is that many of them are sponsored by people.
“I believe that many of these herdsmen’s killings have political motives and people who just want to trouble the government of the day, who don’t want peace because they believe peace would also not be what they would want to see. It is very difficult for you to just hear one version today, another striking us there tomorrow like organised snipers and so on. It is also a way of saying that what we are battling with is not ordinary.”
The APC Chieftain was, however, quick to stress that the APC-led Federal Government has scored a pass mark in terms of the fight against security challenges, even as he stressed that Boko Haram insurgents have been decimated and that Nigerians should support the security agencies to consolidate on the success achieved so far in ending the activities of the terrorists.
Reacting to President Buhari’s resolve to treat the Niger Delta militants the way he handled Boko Haram, he said:
“I think it is a warning; you know at times a father would also warn his child not to cross this line so that ‘I would not be hard on you’.”
