Jonathan is handing over a distressed country – APC

The Punch - Nigeria

The All Progressives Congress on Sunday accused the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration of deliberately sabotaging the incoming administration by contriving crises without making any effort to resolve them.
The party said the Jonathan administration was leaving behind a fractured economy without electricity, with no fuel and disgruntled workers on strike over the non-payment of salaries.
This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The APC however appealed to Nigerians not to lose hope despite the daunting challenges currently being faced “in this atmosphere of contrived chaos, saying help is on the way.”
The Peoples Democratic Party could however not be reached for comments.
Calls to the mobile telephone of the party’s spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh, indicated that it was switched off. A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.
Mohammed said, “In a few days’ time, President Jonathan will hand over to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. Never in the history of our country has any government handed over to another a more distressed country: No electricity, no fuel, workers are on strike, billions are owed to state and federal workers, $60bn is being owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded
“Today, Nigerians are roaming the streets, jerry cans in hand, searching for everything from kerosene to fuel to diesel to power their homes, keep their vehicles on the road and keep their businesses going.
“They are paying as much as N300 per litre for fuel, if at all they can get it. Yet their government is not saying a word about the situation.”
The APC also said while the Jonathan administration had “arrogantly told Nigerians that it remains in office and in power till May 29, all it had been doing is sacking people and making new appointments as if it had been deprived of the opportunity to do so in the past six years.”
The party lamented that the outgoing administration had shown no interest on how to end the fuel scarcity that had paralysed the socio-economic lives of Nigerians.
“They are not interested in how to raise electricity production from its unprecedentedly low level of 1,327 megawatts, they are not doing anything to end the strike by blue and white collar oil workers, or to stop the impending one.
“They say they are in office till May 29, but they do not care how workers in 18 states, who are owed a total of N300bn in salaries under their watch or federal workers who are owed N400bn, will be paid. Yet, they are running a budget of N1tn deficit,” APC said.
It also alleged that the administration had deliberately stopped meeting its obligations to oil marketers on fuel subsidy, which the party put at about N200bn.
The statement observed that if the current energy crisis was not solved soonest, the telecommunications sector could even be grounded in a matter of days as service providers would have neither electricity nor fuel to power their base stations.
“Of course, the aviation sector has already been left comatose by the fuel crisis. The whole scenario reeks of sabotage!,” the party said.
The APC explained that if the nation was being well managed and there was no problem, it would not have embarked on a campaign for change.
Mohammed said the “APC is ready, willing and able to begin to address the mammoth challenges facing us as a nation as soon as we assume office at the centre in a few days’ time.”
He, however, said the party would not hesitate for a second to keep Nigerians informed of how “we have been brought to this sorry state, with a view to avoiding such a tragic turn in the future.”
The party also expressed sadness that the nation had been on auto pilot for the past several weeks, as the outgoing administration had shown neither the capacity nor the willingness “to resolve any of the crises it has contrived and foisted on the nation.
“This is the most vivid manifestation of the old saying that literally translates to a departing office holder defecating on the chair he is vacating,” APC said.