President’s statement on economy chasing away investors—PDP

Henry Umoru & Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA—President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed not to shy away from telling Nigerians how the immediate past administration allegedly plundered the economy, irrespective of anyone’s feelings.

Responding to allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that he was demarketing the country and dissuading foreign investments, the President vowed that the relentless tackles of the opposition party would not in any way dissuade him from his obligations to the citizenry and the international community.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh had, yesterday, attacked the President’s claim in India that Nigeria was broke, saying that such claims at international fora tended to worsen the country’s investment climate.

Metuh had, in his statement, alleged that such claims by the President were essentially because of his lack of a viable economic plan.

Responding to PDP yesterday, presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said that Metuh’s attempts to distract the President from focusing on his job would fail, maintaining that he was a broken record.

The statement read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to the latest statement by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is ‘demarketing Nigeria’.

“We restate for the umpteenth time to Mr. Metuh and his ilk that their attempts to distract President Buhari from the job he has been elected to do will fail.

“President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking, which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership to that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration.

“The President will not, in the guise of ‘marketing’ the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world, the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy.

“President Buhari will not in the name of ‘marketing’ or ‘attracting’ investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP administration and its discredited officials, who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble.”

PDP’s reaction

Earlier in his statement, Metuh had said: “Mr. President’s recent announcement to the world that the nation, with its abundant human and natural resources, is broke and cannot pay cabinet ministers, not only sends a discouraging signal to the domestic and international business community, but also exposes the ineptitude of the present administration to meaningfully and sincerely exert itself and work with industrious and innovative investors to create and manage wealth.

“We ask how can any reasonable investor still have the confidence to invest in a country where the President himself continues to alert that his country reeks of corrupt people and that the government is broke to the extent it cannot pay cabinet ministers?

“Is the President not directly advising investors against having confidence in Nigeria and the system, and that they risk not being paid for jobs awarded by government at any level?

“More worrisome is the fact that Mr. President makes his damaging comments in international fora with potential investors in attendance. It reminds one of the proverbial father who, in the presence of potential suitors, often portrays his daughters as wayward and yet constantly complain of their inability to find husbands.”

-Vanguard