The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) decision to condemn the ruling party and its policies has become its operating manifesto with absolutely nothing to offer by its power mongering leaders.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka, in a statement issued Saturday w
does not recognise itself as a political party, said ADC has not articulated a single alternative policy position or prescription of benefit to Nigerians.
He 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 willful blindness to the justification for, and transformative impacts of, ongoing economic reforms.
He stressed that the report that the ADC sought to cheaply politicize was categorical about the imperative of the reforms meant to correct age-long and crippling structural distortions in the economy.
Morka said it was a matter of national consensus that the fuel subsidy and foreign exchange regimes as operated prior to May 29, 2023 had become an existential threat to the country’s economic survival.
He added: “Clearly, the ADC does not recognize itself as a political party. The ADC has not articulated a single alternative policy position or prescription of benefit to 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, enriched 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.