The All Progressives Congress has criticized what it refers to as doomsday prophecies by two British-based institutions about Nigeria’s economy and the 2019 presidential election.
The party’s stance was contained in a statement by its acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, in Abuja on Wednesday.
The statement was a response to reports by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research unit of The Economist, and a multinational banking and financial services company, HSBC.
The Economist had in a report, predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party would win the 2019 presidential election.
HSBC also said claimed that the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari would hamper the economic growth of the country.
But Nabena was quick to discard these reports, tagging them as nothing but the usual doomsday prophesies about Nigeria, which had serially proved false, deceptive and unreliable.
“The All Progressives Congress urges Nigerians to regard these ‘expert analyses and prophecies’ for what they are and dismiss them accordingly.” Nabena said in the statement.
“We should remember similar prophesies and analyses about the political situation in Nigeria made some years back by similar Western institutions.
“It was prophesied that Nigeria would collapse in 2015, resulting in some ethnic nationalities going their separate ways.
“Here we are, nearly four years after the doomsday prophecy; the Nigerian federation rather than collapse is waxing stronger with President Buhari administration striving to unite the country and consolidate positively on the strength of our diversity.”
The party wondered why it was only negative reports that The Economist, HSBC and similar institutions had about Nigeria.
It added that the two institutions did not see all the positive impacts that the APC administration was making in relation to ongoing economic reforms, fight against corruption, infrastructure drive and counter-insurgency.
The APC listed some of the recoveries made from officials of the immediate past administration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as increases in remittances by public institutions such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the Federal Inland Revenue Service as evidence of the Buhari-led administration’s success in transparency.
In a veiled reference to the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, the statement read, “A former minister in the immediate-past administration who is resident in the United Kingdom is alleged to control enough corruptly-obtained assets whose value if put to productive use could have employed thousands of Nigerians.
“How much of this loot has the United Kingdom, the base of these experts, returned to Nigeria? Of course, these experts are conveniently oblivious of these and many similar cases.
“Rather than consider the plight of Nigerians and campaign for the return of the stolen funds, these institutions have chosen to dissipate energy spewing doomsday prophecies on Nigeria.
“We advise these economic experts to focus on their pressing domestic issues and ponder, for example, on the important question of the role Britain will play in the world, post Brexit.”
