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The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, of leveraging his political ambition to mobilize against President Bola Tinubu. This reaction came after Obi criticized the APC government for causing an unprecedented economic decline over the past nine years.
In a statement signed by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the party claimed that Obi’s comments were a mix of “half-truths, blatant distortions, and misinformation” intended to incite public outrage against Tinubu. The APC dismissed Obi’s assertions as a “revisionist, dishonest, and deliberately misleading assessment” of Nigeria’s economic situation, attributing the country’s economic woes to past administrations under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Morka’s statement highlighted that during the PDP’s tenure, Nigeria’s GDP growth plummeted from 7.98% in 2010 to 2.79% in 2015. The APC argued that the PDP’s reliance on high crude oil prices and subsequent economic mismanagement set the stage for the current economic challenges, which have been exacerbated by global issues such as the oil price crash, geopolitical tensions, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contrary to Obi’s claims, the APC emphasized that the Tinubu administration is making efforts to address economic challenges through diversification, infrastructure development, and social welfare programs. The party noted that Nigeria attracted over $20 billion into the economy and achieved a record N6.52 trillion trade surplus in the first quarter of 2024.
The APC criticized Obi for not acknowledging these efforts and accused him of hypocrisy, noting that he failed to achieve economic transformation during his tenure as Governor of Anambra State. The party concluded by urging collective patriotic collaboration to tackle economic challenges rather than inflaming passions through false narratives.
