Jonathan, PDP lied about state of the nation’s economy – Presidency

President Muhammadu Buhari says he will not tow the path of his predecessor, who lied about the buoyancy and vibrancy of the economy they bled dry.

In response to a statement by the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) spokesman, Olisa Metuh, the President said the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration and the party shamelessly lied about the state of the nation’s economy.

The President was reacting to a statement by the PDP’s spokesperson alleging that he was making harmful statements that could be injurious to the economy and the image of the country as well as drive away investors.

The President would not stop telling Nigerians the truth, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, said in a statement in response to Metuh’s allegations.

“Our attention has been drawn to the latest statement by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is demarketing Nigeria. We restate for the umpteenth time to Metuh and his ilk that their attempts to distract President Buhari from the job he has been elected to do will fail.

“President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership to that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration,” Adesina said.

The President will not, in the guise of “marketing” the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy, he said.

“President Buhari will not in the name of “marketing” or “attracting” investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP administration and its discredited officials who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble,” he said.

It is most unfortunate that instead of showing some remorsefulness for the harm done to the nation by his party, and giving genuine support for President Buhari’s efforts to salvage and revamp the national economy, Metuh persists in a vain attempt to remain relevant on the national stage by unjustly denigrating the President who continues to strive with all his might to alleviate and reverse the harm done to the nation by PDP misrule and corruption, he said.

“Metuh’s antics are futile. President Buhari cannot be distracted by a broken record. If the PDP spokesman ever has serious matters to bring to our attention, we will be prepared to listen,” Adesina said.

Elizabeth Archibong