Seek help over World Bank poverty report - PDP to Buhari, APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressive People's Congress (APC) to seek help over the World Bank's (WB) latest report on poverty in the country.

The report by WB stated that seven million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty in the past year.

And this clinically belies the integrity posturing of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP reacted in the face of the recent claims by President Buhari that his administration has lifted over 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years.

The PDP advised the president to end his false performance claims and get more competent hands to manage the economy before every Nigerian is turned into a street beggar.

The PDP's national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Wednesday, June 16, stated that the WB report has further vindicated its position that President Buhari runs an “uncoordinated and clueless administration that thrives on lies, false performance claims, deceit and perfidious propaganda.”

“Nigerians can now clearly see why the APC and Persident Buhari’s handlers are always in a frenzy to attack our party and other well-meaning Nigerians whenever we point to the poor handling of the economy and on the need for President Buhari to always be factual on pertinent issues of governance in our country.

“Unfortunately, it indeed appears that Mr President enjoys living in denial while watching millions of Nigerians go down in abject poverty, excruciating hunger and starvation as our country now ranks 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index under his watch.

“Otherwise why would Mr President claim that his administration has lifted over 10.5 million Nigerians out of poverty while official figures even from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show worsening poverty rate with 142.2% growth in food inflation and over 82.9 million Nigerians being unable to afford their daily meals due to the failure of the administration to take practical steps to grow and protect the food sector?

“Under President Buhari, Nigerians are now subjected to the worst form of poverty and hardship, with collapsed purchasing power, occasioned by a voodoo economy management that has wrecked our productive sectors and pummeled our naira from the about N167 to a US dollar in 2015 to the current over N500 per dollar.

“It is unfortunate that Mr President will choose to always bandy fictitious figures and false performance claims, when he has, in a space of six years, destroyed our national productivity and reduced our country to a beggarly nation, a laughing stock and object of pity among the comity of nations.”

The PDP further told the president and the APC, that Nigerians have seen through their deceits and lies.