The Peoples Democratic Party, in Abuja, on Monday, accused the governing All Progressives Congress of claiming credit over projects it initiated or implemented.
The reaction came hours after a press conference by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in which he listed the federal government’s achievements including food sufficiency, particularly in rice production.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, disclosed this in a statement he signed late Monday titled ‘Lai Mohammed’s press conference, another APC’s anthology of lies – PDP’.
The main opposition dismissed “the press conference addressed March 28, 2022, by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, as another anthology of lies, false and bogus performance claims by the failed and rudderless APC administration.
“It is ludicrous that the APC government went to the media to list non-existence roads, bridges, agricultural and health projects as achievements. More pathetic is the APC’s attempt to claim credit for development projects initiated and implemented by successive PDP administrations including in our railways, aviation, agricultural, healthcare, education, telecommunications, banking and manufacturing sectors among others.
“The APC government is also claiming credit for critical projects in various parts of the country which are being funded by resources mobilized by the PDP administrations under the framework of counterpart funding from International Partners and bodies.”
The PDP also accused the Minister of displaying arrogance over claims that the APC-led government had achieved food sufficiency, particularly in rice production, at a time when the country battled “famine with the price of food items, especially rice soaring by over 400 percent.
It noted that a bag of rice that sold for N7,500 under the PDP now sold for over N30,000; a measure of bean which sold for N350 under the PDP now sold for over N1000; a measure of garri which sold for N120 under the PDP now sold for N700; a bottle of palm oil which sold for N250 under the PDP now sold for over N1000.
In the same vein, a kilo of meat which sold for N700 under the PDP now sold for N3000; a litre of petrol which sold for N87 under the PDP now sold for N400 to N500 while a litre of diesel which sold for N110 under the PDP now sold for over N800.
“Yet Lai Mohammed provocatively claims that Nigerians are better off under the APC. Nigerians know better and the question to ask is, is your life better now in 2022 under the APC than it was in 2015 under the PDP?” it queried.
The main opposition maintained that the only legitimate achievements of the APC government include “its corruption record (second most corrupt in West Africa and 154 out of 180 in Global Corruption Index), over 33 per cent unemployment rate, a weakened currency at over N500 to a dollar, N33tn foreign debt and still counting and the siphoning of over N16tn by APC leaders.”
It, therefore, cautioned the governing party to note that its continued arrogance in failure is daily confronting and reminding Nigerians of the statement made by one of its founding members, the late Tony Momoh in April 2016 and the consequences are better imagined.
