…says opposition party lacks moral authority to raise eyebrows
Ruling All Progressives Congress says main opposition Peoples Democratic Party lacks the moral authority to query President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over the decision to remove petrol subsidy and compare fuel prices between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, who said this in a statement titled: “Reasons PDP has No Moral Authority to Query PMB’s Administration – APC,” in Abuja, on Sunday, stated that it was baffling that the PDP has to be told it does not have any moral authority to caution or query the President Buhari-led administration.
APC argued that the subsidy regime and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation have been transparent under the Buhari government, unlike what transpired under successive PDP administrations when the same NNPC owed the government up to the sum of N704 billion for gross violations of the subsidy scheme and was unaccountable to no one.
The statement partly read, “Between 2006 and 2013, PDP governments spent over N5.42 trillion on subsidy, which was 15.57% higher than the 2014 national budget of N4.69 trillion.
“It was also under the PDP government that the number of fuel importers rose from 5 in 2006 to 10 in 2007, 19 in 2008 and spiked up to 140 in 2011. This was one of the biggest causes of corruption because many firms only existed on paper and collected subsidies on fuel that never existed.
“To make matters worse, 60 million barrels of oil valued was stolen under the watch of PDP controlled NNPC between 2009 and 2012. The NNPC during the PDP years also failed to remit US$20 billion in oil revenues owed to the nation, which was confirmed by PwC and Deloitte investigative reports.
“The PDP has no genuine reason to cry wolf or display moral authority over subsidy under the Buhari administration.“
Nabena said it was naïve for the PDP to attack President Buhari over his comparison between the pump price of petrol between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
He said PDP’s criticism of Buhari, especially by the party’s spokesperson, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, displayed a lack of understanding of the issues.
The APC added, “He (Ologbondiyan) however forgot that Saudi Arabia pumps 12million barrels of crude oil a day as against Nigeria’s 1.8million, Saudi Arabia has a population of 35million people while Nigeria has a population of over 200million people, Saudi Arabia has 15% tax to GDP while Nigeria has 7.5% tax to GDP, Saudi Arabia has $750billion in their foreign reserves while Nigeria has only $36billion.
“Mr Kola Ologbondiyan also failed the simple arithmetic in calculating the cost and standard of living in both countries.
“In 2019 according to the Bureau of Statistics, the 36 states of the federation received the sum of N2.53 trillion as Federal Allocation. Of the 15 states under the control of the PDP, Delta State was the biggest recipient of federal allocation with a total sum of N214.4 billion.
“Akwa Ibom was second spot with a total sum of N169.79 billion gross allocations within the period. Rivers came third on the list with a gross allocation of N154.5 billion and Bayelsa came 4th with a whooping N143.8 billion in 2019. None of these states headed by the PDP governors have anything vital to show for it.
“The fact that we are debating this clearly shows that the past administrations led by the PDP failed this land. Since you cannot build something on nothing, you’ve got to appreciate what the present leader is doing with little income.”
When contacted for a response, the PDP spokesperson said, “I can’t respond to an impostor!”.