The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has applauded the former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar for advice to President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy.
The commendation was contained in a statement signed by the party’s spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu and made available to Journalists on Saturday.
The APC said although Mr Abubakar’s suggestions in his last article are welcomed, the party expressed surprise that it took the former vice president “13 years after leaving office to realise that the Government under which he served as the Vice President was short-sighted for its failure to faithfully diversify the Nigerian economy. ”
The party, however, said beyond Mr Abubakar’s suggestion, it is important to let him know that he failed to recognise several policies that Mr Buhari’s administration has introduced since 2015 to diversify Nigeria’s economy.
Mr Issa-Onilu in the party’s statement further asked Mr Abubakar why he refused to commend the major achievements of the Buhari administration. The party also accused the former vice president of making several contradictions in his long article.
“It is heart-warming to know we are coping well as the Coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdowns are testing our country’s capacity to feed itself. We have been able to meet the pandemic induced surge in demand for foods only because the APC administration has been implementing policies targeted at expanding the capacity of our farmers and the other players in the allied industries.”
“We ask Atiku Abubakar; where would we have gotten the farm produce for palliatives and feed our people during the lockdown if we had not taken the courageous route of looking inwards while curtailing sabotage from neighbouring economies?”
“In the areas of plugging revenue leakages, curbing waste, diversifying and growing the economy, budgeting, borrowings, ease of doing business, support of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), the President Muhammadu Buhari government is matching electoral promises with actions”, APC statement partly read.
“The APC welcomes Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s concerns and the fact that he is beginning to make a good attempt at sounding like a statesman. Going forward, this is the least we expect from him, even as we hope that he will be more forthcoming in future, in appreciating and commending the positive steps, while offering suggestions on what more can be done. We, however, urge him to continue to do this without sounding overtly sanctimonious.” the statement read.
