The National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi has said the current economic recession in the country is caused by incompetence and lack of vision by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party said the economic policies of the APC-led government is responsible for the “current stagnation of the economy” adding that former President Goodluck should not be blamed for the nation’s economic woes.

The PDP in a statement, by its National Caretaker Committee Spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said the statement credited to Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State that the Jonathan-led government is cause of the nation’s economic recession, is disappointing.

The PDP said the APC should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in ‎recession or war and still succeed in turning them around, adding that the ruling party has “plunged” the Nigeria’s economy into ‎an “avoidable recession” only to turn round and “begin to whine helplessly ‎like a baby.”

The party said: “Will Badaru and his party men continue to blame Jonathan and the PDP ‎‘till 2019 and use Jonathan for the 2019 campaign instead of showing ‎their scorecard? The good thing is that Nigerians who were being ‎hoodwinked at first, are now seeing through the deception of this ‎unending blame game.

“Any dispassionate assessment of economic performance ‎under Jonathan would obviously frown at Governor Badaru’s type of ‎impulsive conclusion without recourse to the strong macroeconomic ‎fundamentals recorded under Jonathan, which laid the foundation for ‎meaningful growth.

“Badaru and those who still think like him should tell Nigerians the ‎character of the economic team in place that has been managing the ‎Nation’s economy since 29th of May 2015.

Governor Badaru should know that you can’t plant grapes and harvest ‎mangoes.

“It is no secret that the policies and statements made by key ‎government actors have not been business friendly and Nigerians and ‎foreign business men took their hard currencies out of the country. When ‎professionals were advising the government to woo investors, characters ‎like Badaru were busy de-marketing Nigeria all over the world.”

“We make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan ‎and the PDP government saw this coming since 2011, ‎and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru ‎and his co-travellers who are now in the All Progressives Congress (APC) ‎frustrated the effort.

“The former administration also wanted to encourage more savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) but the Badarus of this world who play politics with serious national issues and were state governors at the ‎time took the Federal Government to Court and did everything to ‎frustrate the effort. Thank God some of them are among the ‘best brains’ ‎in the APC federal government of today.” (Daily Trust)

•Photo shows Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

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