As part of activities to celebrate the Democracy Day and one year in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the national leader of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC and former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made a shocking revelation to the President, News Punch understands
Tinubu has raised the alarm over moves by some members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to regain access into government through the backdoor, New Telegraph, reports
In a statement issued yesterday by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to commemorate the first year anniversary of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government, Tinubu said the nation would forfeit her future if the present administration gives into their deceit.
His words: “Those who benefitted from injustices past energetically plot their return. The looters of yesterday to whom we waved farewell in the 2015 elections now try to shimmy through the backdoor to continue their pilfering ways.
“There is no progressive policy in your benefit they do not actively seek to undermine and make fail. They hope to use your kindness and patience against you. They seek to erect barriers to discourage us into believing there is no other way than the backward path they offer.
“We shall forfeit the nation’s future if we give into their deceit or if we fall into despondency because progress does not appear to come as fast or as systematically as we hoped. “You, the people, must participate in government as never before.
We cannot be passive onlookers when what lies in the balance is the future of our children and their sons and daughters after them. If someone tried to kidnap your child, you would not fold your hands and close your mouth.
Then we should not do so when the vultures and hyenas of yesterday sneak about in an attempt to steal, perhaps not our children, but their very futures.” Tinubu also decried the ousted PDP administration.
His words: “We have endured the harsh meter of authoritarian rule. After military rule gave way, we withstood the ambivalent nature of 17 years of civilian rule not as brutish as the military, but not quite democracy either.
We existed in the twilight between darkness and light. Yet, we refused to get lost or to avert your focus from what was better. “We lived in a land of elections the results of which were not always the expression of the sovereign will of the people, but of the will of a few people who mistook themselves to be the sovereign.
Instead of holding elections, they used a superficially democratic process to coronate themselves as modern royalty. They misbehaved and misgoverned according to this fouled perception. “The only honour such people could give democracy was to mock it.
When they celebrated democracy day these past 16 years, it was as thieves and burglars celebrating one of their own becoming the chief security officer of a bank.” While urging the government to urgently restructure the economy by initiating fiscal policies that stand unrivalled in its objectives, Tinubu said the government must summon political and social courage for the task ahead of it.
“There are many challenges our nation faces. Security problems trouble some areas, but thankfully government is making progress, particularly against Boko Haram. This brutal terrorist group will soon be a thing of the bleak past. The evil killing and destruction wrought will be no more.
“There is a problem that cuts all areas equally. If we are not careful, it will afflict us a long time to come. In a cold, swift stroke, the decline in oil prices has turned into a mockery the model upon which we had for so long based our political economy.
We either must waste away or construct a new model,” the former governor said. Advising the government on some fiscal policy route that may lead to the revamping of the nation’s economy, Tinubu said: “Government must dedicate unprecedented amounts for productive expenditure in our transportation infrastructure power generation, food security and job creation.
“We have entered a period of stagflation where recession or shrinkage of the economy is accompanied by higher prices. Unfortunately, if we try to fight both at the same time, we fight neither effectively.
“Given the rate of joblessness and poverty, it is more fitting to fight recession at this point than to focus on inflation. We can endure a bit more inflation if it means more jobs and greater aggregate demand that can develop the velocity needed to free the economy of recession’s gravitational pull. “We must resist recession; it is harder to shake off once it takes grip of an economy.
Our economy should diversify by expanding our infrastructural network, bolstering agricultural and farm incomes, as well as filliping industry and manufacturing to provide jobs for a rapidly expanding urban workforce. “We can institute policies that create new industries and businesses as well as improve old ones.
These measures will form the foundation of a diversified economy that will become more resistant to inflation because it is less reliant on imports. “Also, it will be more recession resistant because the economy will rest on multiple revenue sources instead of a single source that is dependent on foreign consumer preferences over which we have little control.”
The APC leader said all hands must be on deck to move the government forward. He said: “Now is not the time to lament, murmur or give into despair. It is time to summon once again the political and social courage that we well know and that well knows us.
“We need to push forward and to urge government forward to do that which it must to achieve this great generational feat. We stand between success and failure; but we cannot maintain this middling position forever. We must turn one way or the other.
To me, there is but one option. The other is unspeakable. We must be bold enough not accept an inferior destiny. We must win. “A great historic push and effort are mandated. Change takes boldness, perseverance and moral fortitude; profound change requires even more so.
The task is hard, but I neither fret nor worry. In my heart, I am comforted by the knowledge that we are so much better and stronger than the obstacle before us,” he said.
Credit: New Telegraph
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