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PDP chieftain mocks Buhari’s govt for listing creation of ministries as achievement

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A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osita Chidoka, on Friday knocked the presidency for listing the creation of ministries as one of the significant achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari since he started his second term in office 15 months ago.

Chidoka is an aide of the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.

The presidency had earlier on Friday enumerated the 35 second-term achievements of the president.

Among the achievements reeled out by the presidency were the establishment of new Ministries, including Police Affairs and Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

However, Chidoka, who appeared on a Channels Television Programme, Politics Today, said the presidency erred by listing the creation of new ministries as an achievement.

He said: “I was surprised that the government released a list of 35 achievements this year because a year ago or two years ago, they released 64 achievements. So, even by their quantum of achievements, the government has declined in productivity.

“But when you look at the quality of the achievements, the GDP of this country has fallen from N520billion in 2018 to N350billion. So, everybody is poorer is this government.

“On the economy, Nigeria’s debt has risen to about N36trillion. It has grown three times to what it was in 2015. It has grown from about N12trillion, meaning that 90 percent of our revenue is actually going into debt servicing. So, I don’t know how that can be seen as an achievement.

READ ALSO: Presidency lists 35 achievements of Buhari’s second term so far

“When you look at the debt profile, it is not as though we borrowed money to invest but we have borrowed money to do practically three things: they have used the borrowed money to sustain the naira at an unsustainable rate from N500 that it was during the 2015 fiasco to N360.

“We have also used this borrowing to finance fuel subsidy. The last one is the power sector subsidy. They are complaining that what supposed to have been done in the power sector hasn’t been done. So, the power sector is consuming a huge amount of foreign exchange that the government cannot sustain.

“Therefore, every Nigerian has paid for this strange 35 policies of which the number one on the agenda is the increase in the numbers of ministries. For a country that is currently (using) 90 percent of its revenue to service its debt, building new ministries and bringing new people into work is certainly not what you should tag as an achievement.”

But the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, Femi Adesina, who also appeared on the programme, played down Chidoka’s criticism.

He said: “In a country of 200 million people, you will always have critics but it does not change the fact that the government is at work and it continues to do what it has set out to do for the country.

“It is being said that the largest room in life is that of improvement. The ministers had been in office for one year and now is the opportunity to assess and in whatever they have fallen short, they can then improve.

“They can improve on coordination, they can improve on communication. That’s the opportunity that one year in four years gives you.”

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