As political parties gear up to commence campaigns in a few days, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that they plunged Nigeria into its current economic woes and therefore don’t deserve to be returned in the 2023 general elections.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) set September 28, 2022, as the date for the commencement of campaigns by all political parties in view of the 2023 general elections.
To this end, most of the top political parties have been constituting their campaign councils to woo Nigerians to their side.
But Kachikwu, in a statement on Sunday to re-echo his disdain for the two top political parties, insisted that both parties fleeced Nigeria in the last two decades of their stewardship.
He also said the current ranking of Nigeria as the “poverty capital of the world” could not be extricated from the abysmal leadership styles of both parties.
According to the ADC candidate, both parties are synonymous with greed, antecedents of corruption and bereft of ideas, hence should no longer be entrusted with managing the nation’s affairs in 2023.
Kachikwu equally wondered why both parties would be jostling to renew their mandate even though all indices of good governance anchored on the rule of law have remained negative since 1999 till date.
He said, “inflation rate is on the high side, and this has rallied up to a 17-year high of 20.5 per cent up from 8.06 per cent in 2014 before the APC came on board in 2015, the huge debt burden the party has amassed for the country through reckless borrowing is also another cause for concerns.
“What the rate of inflation implies is that the average Nigerian cannot afford their basic daily necessities owing to the skyrocketing food prices and other essential services like healthcare and education for their children.
He explained that the party’s governorship candidate, Chief Ikechi Emenike and other candidates of the party, remain unequalled in terms of capacity and experience, adding that, “there could not have been better candidates in all the parties.
Kachikwu, in the statement, also bemoaned the high cost of diesel and petrol, insisting that it has led to phenomenal increases in transportation costs with its negative effect on rising prices of goods and services.
