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The Peoples Democratic party (PDP) has announced its campaign focus ahead of the November 18, 2018 date for the commencement of political party campaigns for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.
The party also took a swipe at the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo accusing him of deliberate distortion of facts regarding the nation’s debt profile, which, PDP said escalated to a frightening proportion under the Buhari administration.
The PDP made this know yesterday, Wednesday, 31/102018 at a press conference addressed in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.
“Our Presidential campaign will, therefore, be issue-based. We will focus on issues that have the direct bearing on the welfare of Nigerians who have suffered enough hardship, pain and anguish in the last three and half years under an insensitive, incompetent and disconnected administration that cares less about them,” Ologbondiyan said.
On the distortion of facts by the Vice President, the Publicity Secretary said: “In the desperation to divert attention from the failures of the Buhari administration, Vice President Osinbajo falsified financial templates to argue that this government has no blame in the accumulation of debts under its watch.”
Find below the full text of the PDP press conference:
Press Conference on PDP Presidential Campaign and other Issues of Urgent National Importance
October 31, 2018.
We have invited you today to address the nation on a number of very important national issues, particularly as we approach the 2019 general elections.
PDP Presidential Campaign
As you are aware, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled November 18, 2018 for the commencement of Presidential and National Assembly campaign activities ahead of the 2019 general elections.
In this regard, the PDP wishes to inform Nigerians about the tenor, outlook and structure of our Presidential campaign.
The PDP sincerely acknowledges and appreciates the massive and unprecedented outpouring of goodwill, support, solidarity and prayers from millions of Nigerians to our party and our Presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, since his popular emergence at our national convention in Port Harcourt.
As you are aware, the emergence of Atiku Abubakar in preparedness to take over the mantle of leadership from the incompetent, insensitive and divisive President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration spurred spontaneous jubilation across our nation irrespective of religious, ethnic, gender and even political affiliations.
Since then, our party and the Presidential candidate have continued to receive solidarity from hosts of professional bodies, labour unions, major socio-cultural groups, religious bodies, traditional institutions, student groups, international organizations and even top members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at various levels.
Today, our Presidential candidate has the highest demography of supporters and volunteer groups, cutting across an overwhelming majority of Nigeria’s voting population in all the nooks and crannies of our country.
Also, since the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as our Presidential flagbearer, our membership strength has soared with millions of hitherto apolitical Nigerians daily joining our fold alongside others crossing over, in droves, from other political parties, particularly, the APC.
Currently, the repositioned PDP has regained its place as the party with the widest grassroots penetration and election-ready presence in all the polling units across our nation.
Nigerians are rallying on the platform of the repositioned PDP to elect a visionary President with the capacity, goodwill and readiness to restore our nation to the path of national cohesion, political stability and economic prosperity; which qualities they have identified in Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, former Governor Peter Obi.
This consensus transcends ethnicity, religion and partisan considerations as the PDP stands shoulder to shoulder with the people to achieve lasting healing for our nation.
Our Presidential campaign will, therefore, be issue-based. We will focus on issues that have direct bearing on the welfare of Nigerians who have suffered enough hardship, pain and anguish in the last three and half years under an insensitive, incompetent and disconnected administration that cares less about them.
Our campaign will focus on solutions. The PDP will not allow itself to be dragged down into the marshes of propaganda, smear campaign, lies and deceit of the fading, discredited and rejected APC.
We will focus on issues of putting our people back to work by creating opportunities for the youths and the over 30 million Nigerians who have lost their means of livelihood because of the harsh economic policies of the Buhari administration.
The PDP and our Presidential candidate will focus on ensuring security and ending the daily bloodletting in our country. We will focus on how to increase the purchasing power of Nigerians, as well as revamp our economy through strategic intervention in critical sectors, especially, power, food security, road and railway infrastructure, education, energy, health, water provision, and labour issues among others, which have been wrecked by the Buhari administration.
The PDP will proffer direction to reduce the cost of governance and release funds for development purposes; cut harsh tariff and tax regimes, eradicate corruption and engender enabling an environment for business to thrive in a manner that will strengthen our naira and restore investor confidence in our economy.
Our campaign will, therefore, be strategically centralized and streamlined to ensure effectiveness and responsibility in our messages content, dissemination and general engagement with Nigerians at all levels. In this regard, all support groups for our presidential campaign are directed to ensure that their operations and activities are approved and coordinated under the direct supervision of the party.
Nigerians have suffered enough hardship. Today, they look up to PDP and our candidate for the solution and we cannot afford to fail them.
Osinbajo’s Distortion On Debt Profile
The PDP also wishes to bring to the attention of Nigerians to the deliberate distortion of facts by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo regarding the nation’s debt profile, which escalated to a frightening proportion under the Buhari administration.
In the desperation to divert attention from the failures of the Buhari administration, Vice President Osinbajo falsified financial templates to argue that this government has no blame in the accumulation of debts under its watch.
It is an incontrovertible fact that the Buhari administration has accumulated more debts that any other administration in the history of our nation.
Our dear Vice President forgot the Nigerians are aware that between 2016 to 2017, under President Buhari, our annual borrowing was about N3.7 trillion as against the N1.04 trillion annual borrowing perimeter between 2008 to 2015. Between 1999 to 2007 the annual borrowing perimeter was as low as N96 billion naira.
To deceive the public and divert attention to the alarming borrowing spree of the Buhari administration, the APC-led Federal Government converted domestic debt borrowed in naira under its watch, to the US dollar so that the very high exchange rate will make the domestic debt look smaller in dollars. This is a deceptive picture because domestic debt was accumulated in naira and not in dollar.
It is important to point out that the domestic debts of states were not part of the data base until 2013. Therefore, a sincere comparison of debts over the years should have focused on total external debt and Federal Government’s domestic debt.
In view of the above, if Vice President Osinbajo, a professor of law was not being economical with the truth, the appropriate comparison should be to have the domestic debt in naira and convert the external debt to naira to get national debt for each of the years, which show that the Buhari administration has accumulated more debts that any other administration.
An appropriate comparison will further show that the annual growth rate of public debt was only 0.44 percent under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, 20.14 percent under the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administration and 29.6 percent under President Buhari.
We therefore charge the Vice President to refrain from bandying figures that he cannot substantiate, in an attempt to score cheap political point. Nigerians have moved beyond the lies, deception, propaganda and beguilement of the APC. It amounts to a huge disservice to our nation if a person of such high office of the Vice President will allow himself to be used to distort figures to deceive Nigerians.
Thank you.
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary