APC’s Lamentations and the Blame Game

Lately, Nigerians have been inundated with lamentations by some prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the new government over the state of the Nigerian economy. What started from the Senator representing the Edo North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Adams Oshiomhole is spreading like wild fire. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edu as well as the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, have joined the list of those lamenting the state of the economy publicly.

It was Oshiomhole who first publicly admitted that the economic situation in the country was dire, and insisted that President Bola Tinubu inherited “a terrible economic situation.”

Then last week, Vice President Shettima declared that Nigeria was in a difficult economic situation, and charged members of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms led by the chairman, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, at State House, Abuja, to develop a robust roadmap that would transform the economy and take the country out of the woods.

Even the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Edu, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Abuja last week, while fielding questions from journalists, was asked to be specific on the kind of economy the Tinubu administration inherited, and he said: “We met a bad economy and the promise of Mr. President is to make it better.”

Recall that immediately former President Goodluck Jonathan lost power in 2015 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), members of the APC wasted no time in letting Nigerians know that the PDP wasted 16 years in power.

At every forum, it became a recurring decimal for members of the ruling APC to blame the opposition party for the country’s woes as if it was not what they came to power to correct and fix in the first place.

In all of these, throughout the eight years of the former President Muhammadu Buhari government, at no time did they blame his government for mismanaging the country. Instead, they were hailing him. But now, they are using every opportunity to tell Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu inherited a bad economy. From who? Of course, from Buhari.

All Nigerians want to see from the new administration is an improved living standards. If these lamentations are going to be the excuses for not performing up to expectations, it is really going to be sad.They cannot say that they did not know the state of the economy when they were campaigning for office and promising Nigerians good life.