In a scathing rebuke, the presidency has lambasted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for its relentless attacks against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Onanuga accused the PDP’s National Executive Council (NEC) of “throwing tantrums” against the President and his party, blaming them for the “notorious inadequacies” of the previous PDP administration that ruled Nigeria for 16 years.
The presidential adviser dismissed the PDP’s accusations as completely out of touch with the realities on the ground, saying they “ignored the stellar achievements recorded by the Tinubu Administration in less than one year.”
Highlighting the administration’s economic successes, Onanuga pointed to the remarkable performance of the national currency, which has appreciated by almost 50 percent against the US dollar in a matter of weeks.
He also noted the stabilization of the exchange rate, with a convergence between the official and parallel market rates.
“The contrived pall of gloom cast over our nation has faded out and renewed hope is now on the leash.”
Onanuga declared, revealing that the positive economic trend has led the IMF to revise Nigeria’s growth projection upwards from 2.9 percent to 3.3 percent for the current year.
The presidential adviser further touted the administration’s ambitious infrastructure plans, including the Badagry-Sokoto Highway and the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway projects, dismissing the “unwarranted attack” by a PDP leader on the latter project.
Addressing the PDP’s criticism of the government’s handling of security, Onanuga stated that “security has improved, with fewer cases of terrorist attacks and banditry recorded.”
He also revealed that over a thousand kidnapped victims, some of whom had been held captive since before the current administration, have been rescued by the armed forces without the payment of ransom.
“It was surprising that the PDP under whose watch Boko Haram was born in 2009 and worse of all, which looted the billions of dollars earmarked to equip our armed forces and the police, could so unabashedly blame the Tinubu administration for what it wrongly termed increasing spate of terrorism and banditry.
“This is far from the truth. Security has improved, with fewer cases of terrorist attacks and banditry recorded. In recent weeks, over a thousand kidnapped victims, some whose kidnapping antedated this government were rescued by our gallant armed forces, without government paying any ransom,” he said .
In a stern warning, Onanuga advised the PDP to focus on addressing its own internal issues, rather than accusing President Tinubu of trying to establish a one-party state, which he dismissed as existing “only in the imagination of the opposition PDP.”
