Massive looting going on under Jonathan – New PDP

Abubakar Baraje

The Chairman of the New Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, has condemned the rape of the country’s economy by the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration.

He said that despite claims to the contrary by the government in a futile bid to deceive Nigerians, the overwhelming evidence was  that the Nigerian economy had been run aground and  was now comatose.

An online agency, Sahara reporters, said  the assertions were contained in a statement issued by the faction in Abuja, and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chukwuemeka  Eze.

It drew attention to the massive scale of officially-induced oil theft, the dwindling returns from oil and massive looting going on at the federal level as evidence that Nigeria was on the brink of economic collapse.

“One manifestation of this is the Federal Government’s inability to pay states their share of the Federal Allocation since July. The last time that states were paid was for part of July.”

Baraje further noted that the arrears had continued to mount daily.  “As at today, the states are being owed N336 bn, with the N75bn being the balance of the July 2013 arrears, N121 bn from June augmentation and over N90bn  as July augmentation.

“The implication of this unfortunate development is that the 36 states have become impoverished and unable to meet up with basic obligations, including the payment of workers’ monthly salaries, which many of the states have been unable to do due to lack of funds.”

The  New PDP added  that the states had also been unable to meet their obligation to contractors, a scenario that is complemented by the growing rate of unemployment, which presently hovers around 80 per cent.

“Let us ponder this: If states cannot pay their contractors – not to talk of entering into new contracts – if states cannot pay their workers because there is no money to pay them, what could result is a huge social catastrophe that will add to the social, economic and political inferno already ravaging Nigeria today.

“All these portend very grave danger for our dear country as youth and labour restiveness appears imminent.”

The party warned Nigerians to expect deterioration in the unemployment situation which is inevitable should the Federal Government continue with the present shoddy management of the economy which leaves much room for abuse.

“Ironically, while the masses suffer, government officials continue to feed fat, using various guises to fritter away our common patrimony,” Baraje  said, adding that Nigerian leaders’life of opulence had  blinded them to the realities of the monumental suffering to which the masses were being subjected on a daily basis.

“Where has all the money gone? For an instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria  had revealed that the country earned a total of N1.05 trn in July, but surprisingly, the minister had not been able to pay states their due statutory allocations. Where are the billions of dollars accruable from daily crude oil sales?

PUNCH