The 2023 presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has stated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government should not celebrate yet over the NBS report of 3,4% GDP growth in the country. He said that the suffering of Nigerian citizens has not abated, noting the economy is still deepening in decline.
Apparently, the claimed GDP growth does not reflect in the lives of Nigerians.
Atiku also disagreed with the plans of the federal government to secure more N11 trillion debt to fund the budget deficit in 2023.
The former Vice President in a series of tweets declared: Atiku Abubakar @atiku “Last week, the National Bureau of Statistics released the GDP figures for Q2 2022.
“The government has been unreasonably upbeat about the reported growth rate of 3.4%. The plain truth is that the economy is in deeper trouble than the APC-led government is willing to admit.
“The citizens’ level of misery hasn’t changed, and the reasons are obvious: first, the key sectors of the economy, notably agriculture, oil and gas (the country’s cash cow) and manufacturing (that contributes to jobs), are either growing slowly or declining.
“Second, unabated are rising commodity prices occasioned by high energy and transportation costs (and aggravated by the disorderliness in the forex market).
“Also, debt levels continue to rise while the fiscal capacity to service its debts is declining.
“All these are enough to erase the perceived gains from output growth. “Having run out of ideas, it appears that our unprecedented level of indebtedness is whetting the government’s appetite for more debt. “This is a recipe for macroeconomic instability.”
Atiku added: “We challenge the National Bureau of Statistics to share with the public their recent statistics on poverty, unemployment and commodity prices—the reality of which will leave no hope for the common man.
“Like I have said before, increasing debts will never be a solution to our indebtedness. My government, if elected, will halt the rate of debt accumulation, and instead focus on private-public partnerships in financing development.”