The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its minions are either living in another planet or require psychiatric evaluation over their attempt to fault Governor Godwin Obaseki’s factual and honest assessment of the state of the nation and the dreadful fate that awaits Nigerians should the party somehow find their way to the Aso Rock Villa in 2023.
The party’s gang of hirelings, including a once-upon-a-time human rights activist continue to pollute the public space with their foul and distasteful takes on the governor’s comment while failing to properly read the room to know that the Governor spoke the mind of majority of Nigerians who have in the last 7 years been impoverished by the APC’s disastrous misrule.
What part of the call for reawakening by Governor Godwin Obaseki is the APC and their minions calling to question? Are Nigerians not victims of the party’s calamitous handling of the country’s affairs, which has today made the country the poverty capital of the world, with a disarticulate economy, excruciating debt burden and a hapless population pushing their way through insecure communities, dilapidated road network, among other failings?
When in April, 2021, Governor Obaseki raised the alarm that the Federal Government was printing money to run the economy and warned that if such practices continued, the Naira was heading to N1000 to $1 as against the rate of N500 to $1 at that time, APC and their lackeys screamed blue murder, playing the ostrich and denying the obvious. But today, what does $1 exchange against the Naira? Is N800 to $1 not equivalent to the warning the governor issued about a year ago?
The inflation rate is at an all time high and the price of staples such as rice, which sold for about N8000 for a 50kg bag during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) era today hovers around N40,000 to N45,000 for the same quantity, and is out of the reach of the country’s poor masses.
The failure of the APC to guarantee oil production has left the country’s finances in dire straits. Under the APC-led government, Nigeria has been incapable of selling crude oil in the international market because of its inability to curb crude theft. The country is now almost missing in the international oil market as a result of the party’s mishandling of Nigeria’s oil assets.
Nigerians can no longer travel from Benin to Lagos, Kaduna to Abuja, Benue to Borno or Abuja to Niger because of the state of insecurity in the country, which the APC has taken to unprecedented levels.
Under the supervision of the APC, bandits drove Nigerians away from their farms and the roads. When Nigerians sought solace in train trips, the bandits also laid siege to the Abuja-Kaduna line and held hundreds of innocent Nigerians hostage and at the mercy of terrorists who killed many in their ferocious attack on the train. The party failed in its fundamental role of protecting Nigerians, who have all now resorted to feeble self-help in protection of their families and whatever is left of their personal belongings.
We know that the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo has spent too much time on the dining table with the APC government of the day, feasting and fattening. He is now totally deaf to the plight of the people, who he once pretended to defend as a human rights activist. We want to remind him that not everyone has been stunned into insensitivity by largesse as has been his case.
Without any equivocation, we want to state in full support of His Excellency, Governor Godwin Obaseki, that Nigerians must by any means necessary stop the APC at the ballot from getting to Aso Rock to prevent the unfortunate descent to a failed state.
Crusoe Osagie
Special Adviser on Media Projects to Edo State Governor
October 25, 2022
