TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is not interested in ending the scarcity of petroleum products that has hit the country since the end of April.

It also accused the outgoing administration of handing over a nation in deep crisis, while continuing to contrive more crises without making any effort to solve any of them.

However, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Lai Mohammed, spokesman of the APC, the party appealed to Nigerians “not to lose hope despite the daunting challenges they are currently facing in this atmosphere of contrived chaos, because help is on the way”.

“In a few days’ time, President Jonathan will hand over to 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, $60 billion dollars are owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded,” it said.

“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.”

APC said while “the Jonathan administration had arrogantly told Nigerians that it remains in office and in power till May 29, all it has 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”.

“They are not interested in how to end the fuel scarcity that has paralyzed 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,” the party said.

“They say they are in office till May 29th, but they do not care how workers in 18 states, who are owed a total of N300 billion in salaries under their watch, or federal workers who are owed N 400 billion, will be paid. Yet they are running a budget of N1 trillion deficit.

“They have deliberately stopped meeting their obligations to oil marketers, which is now around N 200billion, hence no one is lifting petroleum products anymore. If the current energy crisis is not solved soonest, the telecommunications sector could even be grounded in a matter of days, as service providers will 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 APC said before “the PDP and Jonathan administration’s spin doctors distort its message, it is important to let Nigerians know that the party (APC) is not engaging in lamentations but simply keeping the citizenry informed of the situation on the ground, with just five days to handover date”.

“If we thought the nation was being well-managed and there was no problem, we would not have embarked on a campaign of change. While we are 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, we will not hesitate for a second to keep Nigerians informed of how we have been brought to this sorry pass, with a view to avoiding such a tragic turn in the future,” the party said.

It expressed sadness that “the nation had been on auto pilot in the past several weeks, as the outgoing administration had shown neither the capacity nor the willingness to resolve any of the crises it 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 added.