The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that the media aide to the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, was traumatised by his boss’ serial electoral failure.
APC’s claim followed Shaibu’s recent statement, which detailed what he called a series of lies the President Bola Tinubu government had told the Nigerian people since its inauguration on May 29.
But Shaibu, at a different engagement, dared the APC-led federal government to publish the landing cost of petrol as well as the pricing template being used by the government to keep the cost of petrol at less than N640 per litre.
APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement, on Monday, said Shaibu outed himself in his warped and misleading suggestion that the APC administration was hoodwinking Nigerians by propaganda.
Morka said, “In his pathological and cynical flippancy, Atiku’s aide delved into matters he clearly does not understand or lacks the constitutive capacity to understand as a result of post electoral traumatic stress disorder arising from his boss’ serial electoral failure.
“Unsurprisingly, Shaibu’s only ‘evidence’ for such an arrant conclusion is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed more media aides than economic and security advisers, conveniently glossing over the fact that Mr. President was swift in rejigging the security architecture and repositioning the Armed Forces for optimal performance in defence of lives and property.”
The APC spokesman added that Shaibu did not understand the issues and the interplay of statecraft and economic management initiatives by Tinubu to remove age-old distortions and contradictions and accelerate and solidify all-round recovery and prosperity for the country.
Morka maintained, “That Shaibu described as ‘lies’ the administration’s courageous decisions to remove fuel subsidy, harmonise the foreign exchange regimes, and sign into law the Students’ Loan Act, only buttresses his poor understanding of economic development and governance.
“That the fine details of these visionary and people-centred policies are still being worked out and have yet to run their due course cannot and do not negate their valid objectives and potential transformative impact.”
However, Shaibu, in a statement reacting to Morka’s position, said the government’s claim that the petroleum sector had been deregulated was a lie. He insisted that subsidy was still being paid.
Shaibu stated, “The Petroleum Industry Act mandates the total deregulation of the petroleum sector. A deregulated regime has no room for price control. If the APC is saying subsidy is not back, they should explain how the petrol is still being sold at less than N650 per litre when the international price of crude oil is about $94 per barrel and the exchange rate on the I&E Window is N780/$1, and N1,000/$1 on the parallel market.
“How is it that diesel, which has been deregulated, currently costs about N1, 000 per litre while petrol is over 25% less? A document by the Federal Account Allocation Committee, as published by the media, showed that in August 2023, $275million dollars (N169.4billion Naira) was paid as PMS subsidy. Why is the APC still telling barefaced lies?”
Shaibu said the APC government had continually admitted failure by going ahead to sack and detain some of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointees.
He said, “The same APC that praised Godwin Emefiele for eight years and deceived Nigerians with propaganda and their so-called agricultural revolution has gone ahead to sack the same Emefiele and detain him for four months.
“The same APC that claimed to have fought corruption has now gone ahead to detain the man in charge of the anti-corruption war, Abdulrasheed Bawa, for four months. You can see that these people are nothing but liars and deceivers.
“Tinubu claimed he wanted to cut the cost of governance and yet appointed 48 ministers out of which 10 are from his region. Yet the APC claims he is running a fair administration. This is laughable. Adams Oshiomhole even said last month that Tinubu inherited a bad situation. How can a maggot criticise the fly that gave birth to it?”
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
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Someone need to tell Nigerian the truth about the economy of supply and demand for dollar. As long as Nigeria appetite for import luxury goods such as Iphone and expensive cars and strong dollar, naira exchange rate will continue to be weak.