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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to the editorial publication by Financial Times of Nigeria becoming a failed state.
It would be recalled in an editorial last Tuesday, Financial Times had said “Nigeria will become a problem far too big for the world to ignore” if urgent and drastic measures are not taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also reacted in a statement on Sunday, noting that the international business news medium only stated the obvious, “as our nation under President Buhari has presented all the trappings of a failed state including having a rudderless government with a dysfunctional command structure that cannot guarantee security, manage our economy or even perform very simple tasks of governance”.
But the APC, through John Akpanudoedehe, secretary of the ruling party caretaker committee, described the claim and similar ones as “doomsday wishes.”
According to the statement which was issued on Sunday, the ruling party said contrary to the claim, the Buhari administration is “visibly and frontally” addressing Nigeria’s current challenges
“While naysayers and opposition partisans chorus their doomsday wishes for Nigeria, our dear country is nowhere close to becoming a failed state,” the statement read.
“From the economy to security, it is easy to sum up Nigeria with some recent recorded security incidents and the economic downturn. However, this government has displayed the political will and capacity to contain any criminal/terrorist activity and return the economy to growth.
“President Buhari’s administration which sees the urgent need to have a better policing system for the country and is embarking on sweeping police reforms and supporting community policing, is definitely not governing a country close to becoming a failed state.
“Amid the COVID-19 induced economic slowdown, President Buhari’s administration which is stimulating the economy by preventing business collapse; supporting labour-intensive sectors such as agriculture; creating jobs through infrastructural investments in roads, rails, bridges; promoting manufacturing and local production at all levels to attain self-sufficiency in critical sectors of the economy, is definitely not governing a country close to becoming a failed state.”
The party said Nigeria used to have an “ignoble pastime” when previous administrations will rather “bury its head in sand and spin conspiracies in the face of insecurity and engage in voodoo economics to hoodwink Nigerians while national resources were stolen and diverted to political cronies”, adding that “those days are gone.”
“While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their hirelings engage in their unfortunate and apparently orchestrated attacks on the Armed Forces and other security services, the APC will rather support their efforts and charge them to do more to further degrade the capacity of terrorists and other criminal elements to attack soft targets,” it’ said.