TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign for “destroying” Nigeria’s economy.

Deji Adeyanju, PDP new media director, said this in a statement.

Reacting to the figures of unemployed Nigerians and that of the rate of inflation in the country released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, Adeyanju accused the Buhari administration of incompetence and ineptitude.

“Nothing better showcases the absolute ineptitude and incompetence of the Muhammadu Buhari administration than the GDP, inflation and unemployment figures released by Nigerian Bureau of Statistics,” he said.

“These figures reveal what we have repeatedly said over the last 15 months – the Nigerian president is destroying the Nigeria economy.

“For the avoidance of doubt, some of these figures include GDP contracted by -2.06% in Q2 2016. In contrast, the economy grew by 2.35% in Q2 2015. Q2 was worse than the -0.36% shrinking of the economy in Q1 2016; headline Inflation for July 2016 stands at 17.1%. It was from 16.5% in June 2016; food inflation was 15.58% for July 2016 from 15.3% in June 2016; portfolio investment declined to an estimated $245.3m in Q2 2016. This represents a 9.5% from $271.0m in Q1 2016 & is a far cry from $2.81bn in Q2 2015 and FDI declined from $211.1m in Q2 2015 and $174.4m in Q1 2016 to an estimated $133.0m in Q2 2016.”

Adeyanju said that the implication of these indices was “that Nigeria is in its worst economic state in 29 years – dating back to 1987 when the nation had to take harsh steps to recover from President Buhari’s policies of 1984-85.”

“As with 1984-85, companies are fleeing our shores in droves. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) recently stated that 272 companies have shut down in the past one year,” he said.

He said that the country was suffering a brain drain “where our best and brightest talents are leaving the country in search of a better life elsewhere”.

“It is disheartening that the Buhari administration is destroying the Nigerian economy and our collective future by the implementation of his archaic and incoherent economic policies which failed in 1984-85 and are failing spectacularly now,” Adeyanju said.

“Our dismay is worsened by the fact that every sphere of the Nigerian socio-political space (ranging from the conduct of elections, human rights, respect for the rule of law, security, technology, health etc) is negatively affected by the Buhari administration.

“We join all well meaning Nigerians to call on Buhari to resign if he is unable to reverse the disastrous economic decline he has brought on Nigerians.”