Mr. Osita Okechukwu
By Tony Adibe
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and not the APC, should be held liable for mortgaging the future of Nigeria.
Okechukwu, one of the founding members of the APC, said this while answering questions from newsmen in Enugu on Monday on the allegations of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on “fiscal vandalism” on the APC and President Bola Tinubu.
NewsBits recalls that the ADC had on Sunday accused President Tinubu’s administration of “fiscal vandalism”, following the National Assembly’s approval of £21 billion in foreign loans. The ADC had said that the new wave of borrowing would drive Nigeria’s public debt beyond N200 trillion before the end of the year, with no corresponding development or economic revival to justify it.
“My candid position is that the leadership of the ADC is the true vandals who really mortgaged Nigeria today and tomorrow via their less than transparent privatisation programme. Because electricity is the bedrock of economic development, Nigerians have not slept since the day they auctioned NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla under all manner of conspiracy theories.
“One challenges ADC, if they are truly transparent to release the House of Representatives report on the $16 billion fiscal vandalism on the electricity value chain under their watch – dubbed Ndudi Elumelu 2009 Report,” Okechukwu said.
He said that just as ADC vandalised NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla, our economic substructure, they also vandalised the superstructure of our sister political party – the PDP’s unity rotation convention in 2023. Okechukwu said that instead of joining fellow patriots to reposition the dislocated PDP, they hurriedly took refuge in the ADC.
He said, “Thinking that hauling stones will make Nigerians forget the Manitoba and other less than transparent transactions which led to prohibitive electricity tariff and stymied huge investments like Aluminium Smelter, Ajaokuta, etc.”
He advised that the President should resist borrowing for recurrent expenditures or flimsy projects, if there is any, but borrow for critical infrastructure to enhance manufacturers’ productivity.
“For me we should resist borrowing for recurrent expenditure or flimsy, if there is any, rather the implementation of the Orasonye Report and urgent cutting down of unnecessary expenditures.
“Albeit one will support President Tinubu to borrow about $50 billion to overhaul the entire electricity value chain, a bedrock of economic resurgence,” he said.
Okechukwu advised the President that, instead of borrowing $3 billion to rehabilitate the narrow gauge of Eastern Corridor Railways at the moment, he should borrow a commensurately higher amount for standard gauge railways. He said that the President should borrow to establish a deep-sea port in the Niger Delta to stimulate economic growth.
