Adams Oshiomhole, All Progressives Congress, APC, National Chairman, APC Governors, Senators and other high ranking members of the party were Tuesday absent at the National Consultative Forum, a campaign event for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, held at NICON Luxury, Abuja.
According to the notice for the occasion organized by the National Committee of Buhari Support Groups in collaboration with the Council for New Nigeria Initiative, Oshiomhole was to serve as the Special Guest of honour, with all APC Governors and Senators as guests but only Governor Akinkwumi Ambode of Lagos State turned up with Senators George Akume, Abu Ibrahim and Hope Uzodinma.
President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented at the occasion by Vice President Yemi Osibanjo disclosed that the APC controlled Federal Government has spent N2.7 trillion on the provision of infrastructure despite dwindling revenue due to drop in oil prices.
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Osibanjo explained that between 2010 and 2014 Nigeria earned the highest amount ever in the country’s history from oil with the sum of $383 billion but the APC government has earned less than US112 billion but has done a lot not only in infrastructure development but human empowerment.
He also decried that when APC came into office only $30 billion was left into Nigeria’s external reserve after all the earnings of the PDP government but the country now has $44 billion in the foreign reserve despite the drop in earnings and called on Nigerians to reelect the President Buhari led APC government for better economic development.
“When we came into office over 22 States were owing between 3 to 6 months salaries. The President insisted we must support the States to pay. Yet when we came into office oil was down to 30 dollars a barrel we are earning 60% less than the previous government yet in the past three years we have spent 2.7 trillion on infrastructure the highest in the history of the country .
“So today we are doing major roads in 36 states, Lagos Kano Railway, Warri – Aladja , Mambilla , Port Harcourt – Maiduguri. We are feeding 9.2 million children every day, we are giving 2 million petty traders a better deal in life with Tradermoni, we have now employed 50000 graduate under the N-Power programme, we are giving at least 400,000 of the poorest Nigerians 5000 a month. How because Buhari is the gate keeper he has stopped grand corruption. So despite the fact that we are earning 60% less we are doing 5 times more .
“Come February 2019 the APC will by the grace of God win the general elections . We will return President Mohammadu Buhari as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for a second term. The election will be a historic one. It is a battle between those who want our country’s resources to be used for our country and her people, and those who want to privatize the commonwealth,” Osibanjo stated.
In a Keynote address, APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu urged Buhari support groups to remind Nigerians of the ills perpetrated by PDP during the 16 years it was in power, plunging the country into unfortunate economic and social woes until APC took over in 2015 and the party and her candidates should be rejected in the 2019 general elections.
“We have sacrificed too much, under the destruction of their trade mark, peoples destruction party, PDP, we can not go back forward ever, back ward never. People must ask you why do you belong to this support group. Tell them you are a very committed members of a rescue mission that started in 2015 and remember how things were.
“Our people remind them, what happened. A nation without history doesn’t exists. Our political history, financial history so that they have the best opportunity for prosperity. They are now complaining! For God sake, they were there for 16 years do they add one litre not one barrel of capacity to the refinery in Nigeria. If that’s the only thing they did. They didn’t even pay counterpart funding for our rail, electricity and we cannot industrialize a nation without those power source”, Tinubu said.