The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the trio of former Vice President, former Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s reforms self-serving and driven by a desperate quest for power to satiate their voracious rent-seeking appetite.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka in a statement issued Monday rejected the allegation that the government of President Bola Tinubu was “weaponising” poverty by not eradicating the scourge in two years.
Morka noted that the trio have occupied Nigeria’s highest political offices between 1999 and 2023, either as Vice President, Governors, or Ministers, among other important positions.
He stressed that in all 24 years, the trio, individually or collectively, could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country.
Morka pointed out that they did not even attempt to address, let alone tackle the structural challenges and distortions that stifled the economy and worsened poverty over the years.
He added: “Rather, they reveled in mindless rent-seeking behaviour, sold national assets to their cronies for mere pittance, engaged in corrupt and wasteful expenditures in their states, and relentlessly sponsored state violence against their own people.
‘’Take the case of Amaechi, the celebrant, who served for an unbroken total of 24 years – eight years as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, eight years as Governor of Rivers State, and eight years as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That’s about a quarter of a century of freeloading by Amaechi on state resources, with absolutely no record of attempting to combat poverty in his Rivers State or the country.”
Morka stressed that when Amaechi declared, “I am hungry,” he must be understood to mean that “he is hungry and desperate to return to his felt entitled dependency on state resources and patronage.
“That he is hungry barely two years out of office simply underscores the depth of the self-serving motivations of Amaechi and his coalition partners in their quest for power for selfish exploitation, and not for the interest of the people.
Morka added that the erstwhile artificially overvalued Naira stifled local production, encouraged import dependency, and exacerbated poverty.
He said ironically, Atiku and Peter Obi, who are now vociferously criticising Tinubu’s policies, amassed their wealth from the very import-dependent system they are desperately trying to preserve.
The spokesperson noted: “Atiku, a former Custom Officer, and Obi, a successful importer, reaped enormous benefits from the old system. Their criticisms reek of special interest masqueraded as concern for the people. By allowing market forces to determine the Naira’s value, the administration is taking necessary bold steps to catalyze economic growth, incentivize investment, boost competitiveness, and alleviate poverty.”