By Lukman Olabiyi
A youth and women group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called PDP New Generation has lamented that Nigeria is on life support and needs rescuing from the poor administration of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The group which lamented the state of affairs of the nation in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mohammed Ahmed Gorko, said with all the campaign promises made by the APC before coming on board, the party had not only failed in all facets of national life, but has set Nigeria backwards by several years.
The support group’s statement read in part: “With all the crusade promises made by the APC, when they came onboard, they failed not only in all facets of our national life, but reduced Nigeria to the poverty capital of the world. The entire system has been bastardised and suffocated to the extent that the country is on life support and needs rescuing.
“Under this administration which campaigned vigorously to address insecurity, Nigeria witness the Kaduna-Abuja train attack which has made the country lose more than N3 billion in revenue since the attack occurred.
“The education sector is on the verge of collapse with a prolonged strike forcing university students to sit at home for close to seven months while their dreams are being shattered. Our schools have become dilapidated with little or no infrastructure to aid and boost research.
“In the health sector, there is a continuous and consistent brain drain. It is estimated that at least 12 Nigerian doctors leave the shores of this land to practice overseas weekly. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said they produce 1,600 doctors every year and almost 1,200 are leaving the country.
“Nigeria’s unemployment rate also rose from 18.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2018. As of 2021, the total unemployed population in Nigeria was estimated at around 6.3 million people.
“The power situation is not palatable as the national grid has collapsed seven times in 2022 alone. As of March 2, 2022, Nigeria’s energy generation dropped to 3,983.9MW.”
On the economy, the group said that as of 2015, the inflation rate was a single digit of (8%) but today stands at (18.17%) causing food prices to skyrocket beyond control. The monetary and fiscal policies were so bad that they caused the Naira to tumble and fall with no parachute.