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… Condemns silence of ex leaders
By Chinelo Obogo and Henry Uche
Former deputy national president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olabode George, has said it is ‘absolute lunacy’ for any Nigerian to contest for any political position on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) or for anyone to support the party.
George who said this yesterday at a press briefing in Lagos, said there seems to be a graveyard silence while Nigeria is bedeviled on all fronts, hence the silence of ex-heads of state is a sign of deception.
“I see it as absolute lunacy for anybody to campaign for APC or to contest on the platform of APC, due to the state of formlessness the ruling party has thrown Nigeria into,” he said.
The PDP chieftain who didn’t not endorse any candidate urged Nigerians to vote for the candidate who can deliver it from its current economic retardation, saying, “Nigeria loses about $29bn annually to epileptic power. Currently there is no light, no security, no cash, no fuel, nothing is working.
“Something strange or unusual happens in the polity every day, leading to socio-economic turmoil permeating our entire landscape. The PDP, the Labour Party, SDP, NNPP, and others seem to have concurred to the present shenanigan.
“The decision of Nigeria economic managers have dragged us to a dire strait. Citizens are left worse today because the government is clueless. We can’t afford to repeat the mistake, so let’s us shine our eyes.”
On the crisis in PDP, he maintained that the party disrespected the South Westerners by allotting every key position to the North. “Until PDP addresses the challenge rocking the party, I can’t stand with him,” he said.
He added that wherever young, vibrant, intelligent minds are given a pride of place to steer the destinies of their nations, such societies invariably widen the opportunities for competitive growth, encourage a healthy contest of ideas and strengthen their developmental advantages.
“Anyone who wants to forment trouble must desist forthwith because God will handle them. In a civilized country, APC would have no gut to dash the street and ask Nigerians to vote for them.
“I wonder what madness will propel anyone of sane mind to plunge Nigeria into the present state of hopelessness, annihilation and abject suffering of the citizenry. The situation puzzles rationality. It benumbs our senses as Nigerians wake up every day to daily agonies of perennial fuel scarcity, tossed at us by the NNPC and the agony of non-availability of cash, occasioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through its Naira rebranding.
“The center appears overwhelmed about grappling with the Nigerian challenges. I believe the various state actors can do better.
“Managers of our economy should not take Nigerians for granted by churning out retrogressive economic policies. Nigeria must withdraw from the destructive brink. Something must give to spur a Nigerian rebirth and renewal, lest we become the permanent invalid African giant.
“To change course, to redefine our path, we must cultivate the essential ingredients of meritocracy as the critical building blocks of a modern society.
“Sparing a thought for the chaotic cash crunch imbroglio which has brought the nation to its knees with nobody spared of the suffering being experienced, I make bold to say that the decision of the manager of our financial system, the CBN, to redesign the Naira, has only pushed the country further into dire straits.
“Our national economy has sunk deeper into the abyss, and the people are being made to become refugees in their own country with hunger ravaging every home. The policy on the currency should not have been contemplated in the way it was implemented.
“It is only pathetic for the CBN to come up with such policy, despite its good intentions because the present ugly state of our everyday life of epileptic power supply, high rate youth unemployment and sundry social challenges renders all the positive intentions of the policy worthless. The citizenry are only worse for the policy, toiling in vain every day for the non-availability of the new notes.
The tragic comedy of the financial crisis is the internal exchange rate racket going on in all the states.
“Nigerians now pay between 10% and 25% for them to get their hard-earned Naira cash. Nigeria must be the only country in the world where you pay ‘officially’ a percentage in local currency for you to get your money in banks.
“It is important to escalate this point that Nigerians cannot be forced to move away from a cash-based economy to a complete cashless regime overnight like the CBN wants to implement, with our present archaic state of technology like the internet which is still in its nascent and epileptic state and the perennial fuel supply situation which has also thrown the country into turmoil.
“The current hitch in the supply of petrol across the country is scandalous. The government and its agencies are clueless, making conflicting statements and embarking on uncoordinated actionss, pushing the country more to the brink of collapse. Any move short of this is a recipe for complete chaos,” he said.
