Rauf Aregbesola, the National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of weakening the nation’s electoral system.
News.ng reports that Aregbesola, while addressing delegates during the ADC’s national convention on Tuesday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, blamed the APC for increasing economic hardship on the masses through its unrealistic and anti-people economic reforms.
Aregbesola said, “We proclaim our existence because our country is worth all necessary sacrifices. We cannot allow kakistocracy in Nigeria.
“The government’s claim that the recent reduction in the exchange rate shows its mastery of economics. This is false. The exchange rate was about seven hundred naira to the dollar at the open market when this government assumed office is now about one thousand four hundred. This amounts to a one hundred per cent devaluation.”
Highlighting the depth of poverty the APC administration has plunged millions of Nigerians into, he gave an example of how the price of petrol had skyrocketed from the region of N280 per litre to N1,400 per litre—despite Nigeria being an oil-producing nation and a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Consequently, this hike in the petroleum product has had a negative effect on transportation, as transport fares are on the high side, unleashing untold hardship on Nigerians who commute daily to their places of assignment.
“The cost of a litre of fuel was between one eighty-five and two thirty-eight naira. Now it is about one thousand four hundred per litre and still rising. It has become unrealistic for some workers to go to work,” he lamented.
On education, the former Osun State Governor criticised the government for its abysmal performance in a critical sector.
According to him, under the APC administration, the number of out-of-school children has risen from 18.3 million to over 20 million.
“We have the duty to stop these scammers from retaining power. ADC. As for education, the number of out-of-school children, which used to be eighteen point three million, has lending to some twenty million.
“Equally, far more children, due to neglect and inability of their parents to take care of them, are being railroaded by the government into extreme poverty and criminality,” he noted.
Touching on the level of poverty this administration has plunged millions of Nigerians into, he said, “today, one thirty million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor. One thirty million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.”
Concluding his address, without mincing words on the spate of insecurity, the ADC chieftain described the last 10 years of the APC administration as the worst in the history of this country.
“Delegates and leaders, ladies and gentlemen, this has been the worst time in time of, in terms of security in the nation, with banditry and terrorism spreading across the country. But also worrying is the mad lack of empathy by the rudderless presidency. After the twenty twenty-five-year massacres in Benue State, the president, supposedly on a condolence trip, did not visit the affected community. Rather, he held court in the Benue State Government house and returned thereafter to safety in Abuja.
“Again, in twenty twenty-six, after the Anguwan Rukuba killings in Jos, rather than visit the affected community, the president stayed put at the Jos Airport, which is forty minutes drive from the city, and had the surviving victims and families brought to him, and was even quoted to have said that he must leave urgently because there will be no power supply at the airport.”
