TheCable

Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), says it’s a colossal shame to see Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo celebrate bailouts as an achievement.

Speaking at the ACPN press conference in Lagos on Monday, and unveiling her party’s roadmap for winning the 2019 presidential elections, Ezekwesili said Buhari’s legacy is the destruction of Nigeria’s wealth.

“Let us talk about the present administration; what is the primary legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari? It is the destruction of our nation’s wealth — presiding over the worse economic recession Nigeria has seen in decades,” she said.

“Even now that the economy has come out of recession, the growth is as sluggish as its government. Four out of every 10 adults are either unemployed or underemployed and Nigeria is now the poverty capital of the world.

“In the midst of this, its vice-president was celebrating last week at the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES24) that handing bailouts to state governors who cannot pay salaries is an achievement.

“Wow, what a big shame, what a colossal shame!”.

She said she is now a politician and she’s in the polity as a candidate, so Nigerians no longer have to choose between “the devil and the deep blue sea”.

Ezekwesili, who served as vice-president of the World Bank, said she was a cabinet member before she was 40 years old, adding that power has never and can never confuse her.

She said she terminated the powers of the minister — her own power as a minister — to discretionarily allocate mining licences.

The former minister, who said that she understands economics and nation-building, said she will lift a minimum of 80 million Nigerians out of poverty if voted into power in 2019.