MDPCO berates Tinubu over false economy claims in Mecca

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organization (MDPCO) has berated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for ‘falsely claiming’ in Mecca that Nigeria’s economy has “come out of the dark tunnel”, when in reality the economy is worsening by the day under his ‘insensitive, reckless and rudderless administration’.

The MDPCO said this in a statement on Monday by its Director of Strategic Communications, Hon Richard Ihediwa in Abuja.

The council said that “it is profane that President Tinubu could stand before the Holy Ka’abah in Makkah to make such a spurious claim despite the damming indices showing that the nation is sinking deeper into poverty” under him, with over 140 million citizens (63% of the population) living in abject poverty.

According to the statement by MDPCO, “While President Tinubu made his false claims in Mecca, hundreds of businesses are closing on daily basis in Nigeria due to the adverse effect of his punishing economic policies and harsh taxes. “This is just as mass unemployment has become a new normal with over 60 million Nigerians facing acute food insecurity and going to bed on empty stomach with no hope in sight under the Tinubu administration.

“Under President Tinubu’s rule, insecurity continue to fester to the extent that citizens can no longer freely move around the nation to ply their trades, go to their farms and engage in other commercial activities, an ugly situation with attendant negative implication on the economy.

“Despite being an oil producing country, fuel price in Nigeria remains unaffordable at N1,500 to N2,000 per liter in various parts of the country, driving high costs of living, harsh business environment and eroded purchasing power of citizens.

“Today, under President Tinubu’s voodoo economy Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit has hit an estimated $2.3 trillion, with experts stating that the gap would require approximately $100 billion annually over the next 30 years to fix.

“It is ironic that President Tinubu claims that the economy has come out of the dark tunnel when he is mortgaging the future of the nation with reckless borrowing from foreign creditors with no verifiable investments in projects or programmes and no clear-cut plan to repay the N166.7 trillion debt accumulated under his watch.

“Nigerians expected President Tinubu to use the sacred precincts of the Holy Ka’abah, to seek genuine contrition before the Almighty Allah, shed the trappings of presidential power and confront the damning record of his administration against the crushing hardship and widespread misery its policies have inflicted on nation.

“The fact that President Tinubu can, in the face of the current economic quagmire, claim that the nation economy has come out of the dark tunnel, only goes to confirm that he has come to his wits end and has nothing more to offer as president.

“His affirmation in the Holy Land that the Almighty Allah gives power and can take from him to whom He wills, comes to Nigerians as an answered prayer given their earnest desire and supplication for a breath of fresh air under a new leadership

“MDPCO expresses the hope that President Tinubu will heed this divine guidance and, in the overriding interest of Nigeria withdraw from the 2027 presidential race and support the Presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Engr. Seyi Makinde, thereby allowing the country to chart a new course with his RESET NIGERIA Agenda.

“We remain confident that Nigerians, guided by divine wisdom, have embraced Engr. Seyi Makinde, as a credible alternative to the Tinubu administration, with a Reset vision anchored on economic opportunities, affordable living, effective security, quality education, accountable governance and national unity”, the council said.