The All Progressives Congress (APC) has defended President Bola Tinubu’s dealing with of poverty and starvation in Nigeria, saying his administration has accomplished extra to handle the underlying causes of the challenges than earlier governments.
Felix Morka, spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, stated former presidents didn’t eradicate poverty regardless of having alternatives to handle the issue throughout their tenures.
Morka made this identified throughout an look on Arise News Channel on Tuesday, the place he defended Tinubu’s remarks on the historic roots of poverty in Nigeria.
According to him, the president was not evading duty for the financial challenges dealing with Nigerians however was offering historic context to clarify how the nation arrived at its current scenario.
“The president isn’t evading or making an attempt to dodge duty That’s been entrusted to his workplace as president. What the president was talking about was merely profiling the historical past of the endemic poverty that we’re confronted with in our nation.
“You know, physician, I’m certain, you realize, a few of us have AIDS now on our facet, and so we dwell by means of fairly a variety of many years already, you realize, on this nation, and we all know that poverty may be very aware of us.
“Growing up in the Delta state as I did, I, you know, saw poverty all around, you know, where I was raised in my community. Poverty is something that is, you know, a feature of many societies around the globe,” he stated.
Morka argued that poverty had existed in Nigeria lengthy earlier than Tinubu assumed workplace, accusing opposition figures of presenting starvation and financial hardship as issues that emerged solely lately.
He stated Tinubu’s feedback in Kaduna have been supposed to focus on the historic elements behind the nation’s poverty slightly than shift blame for the present financial scenario.
“Poverty has been with us for a really very long time. Now, within the historic context, as president, when you find yourself president, physician, you’re president in the present day, however you’re a successor in workplace to presidents who got here earlier than you.
“So when this president looks back and says, look, you know, this problem, this phenomenon that we’re dealing with today, we’re contending with, that I’m working really hard to fix was created by some of those who today are pointing fingers,” Morka stated.
The APC spokesperson particularly referenced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who served below former President Olusegun Obasanjo, arguing that their administration had didn’t eradicate poverty throughout its eight years in workplace.
“I feel atiku was vp of the Federal Republic for eight years with the previous president, Obasanjo. Now, between the 2 of them, they’d eight years to eradicate poverty, assuming that poverty was that simple to snap your finger and eradicate. Now, let me rapidly say that, you realize, they didn’t eradicate poverty.
“All of the other presidents who have come before them did not eradicate poverty, even when, even if we’re to suggest that they had a constitutional obligation to eradicate poverty, they didn’t, they couldn’t eradicate poverty,” he stated.
Morka maintained that Tinubu’s reference to earlier administrations was justified, insisting that the nation’s current financial challenges couldn’t be understood with out contemplating its political and financial historical past.
He additionally dismissed criticism that the president was utilizing the previous to keep away from accountability for the hardship Nigerians presently face.
“There is not any current with out the previous.
“The present is only the present because there’s a past, which this president was referring to. So that is not, you know, evading responsibility,” he added.
The APC spokesperson additional claimed that Tinubu had taken extra decisive steps than earlier presidents to handle the underlying situations chargeable for poverty and starvation, arguing that earlier administrations prevented troublesome choices as a result of they have been unpopular.
“Matter of reality, this president, greater than every other president earlier than him, has unmistakably accomplished a lot extra to repair the foundational situations that’s chargeable for the poverty we talk about, for the starvation that we talk about.
“All of the other people before him didn’t do it. They didn’t have the guts to do it. Because, you know, doing it wasn’t popular,” Morka stated.
He additionally accused opposition figures of contributing to Nigeria’s financial difficulties by means of the sale of nationwide belongings and failure to fulfill employees’ entitlements, arguing that these criticising the present administration ought to account for his or her data in workplace.
“And that’s what we’re having this conversation, where these opposition figures who were responsible for selling off all of Nigeria’s assets, completely sending millions of Nigerians into penury by not paying them even their basic entitlement that they worked for. the ones who today are pointing fingers, they cannot pontificate endlessly,” he stated.
Morka’s remark comes amid reactions to Tinubu’s remarks on the APC marketing campaign rally in Kaduna, the place the president accused his political opponents of making starvation and poverty in Nigeria, insisting that his administration is working to eradicate the challenges.
Tinubu made the remarks on Saturday on the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential marketing campaign rally on the Kaduna Township Stadium, Kaduna State, the place he sought the voters’s assist for a second time period in workplace forward of the 2027 presidential election.
The president accused former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and different opposition leaders of making the financial challenges his administration was working to handle.
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