THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has requested the Federal Government to create new strategy in fighting against the Boko Haram insurgency rather than demand for money.
It said in a statement on Tuesday, that imaginative thinking, instead of sticking to the same old way of doing things – which was what the $1 billion loan request represented, would be more desirable at this point.
The statement issued in Abuja by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, further said while no reasonable person would argue against procuring modern weapons and other needs for the military, it was absolutely important to complement the military campaign against the Boko Haram with political, social and economic measures, especially because a sustained military campaign dating back to 2009, had failed to end the crisis.
“Between 2010 and 2014, a total of $14 billion had been allocated to defence, security and the police. This year alone, the total sum is $4 billion. Now, if $14 billion had not clipped the wings of the Boko Haram in five years, what difference can $1 billion make if thrown into the crisis in the same old way?
“If the Federal Government has not accounted for how it spent $14 billion allocated to the security, defence and police in the past five years, why should it be given the green light to borrow another $1 billion?
“If the said $14 billion had not done much in upgrading military and security facilities in five years, what impact can $1 billion suddenly make? These are some of the questions we want the National Assembly to ask before giving the Federal Government the go ahead to plunge Nigeria into another round of external debts,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday, raised the alarm over the recent pronouncements of the APC and some of its leaders, saying they were preparatory to a grand plot to truncate the nation’s democracy.
APC, its leaders, including former military head of state, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari; former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and Senator Bola Tinubu, have in the past few days attacked the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan for allegedly using the instrument of state power to emasculate the opposition.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, who read a script entitled: “APC is on the destructive march again,” said the leadership of the PDP had taken note of a series of pronouncements and threats from the leading opposition politicians.
He said the fact that these leaders “have taken turns, in quick succession, in this vicious condemnation of the leadership of the country is not a mere coincidence.
“Nigerians suspect and we stand to be corrected that these pronouncements are not in vain, but part of the larger plot to build a grounds well of negativity with the ultimate aim of truncating our hard-earned democracy.”
PDP said it was not puzzled that “the common denominator of these orchestrated statements are weighty, but baseless accusations against the Federal Government and the ruling party on the health of our democracy and the unity of the country.
“However, a catalogue of events involving these politicians and their political party indicate that they are the real causative agents of the issues they accuse the Federal Government and the PDP of.
“Just a few months ago, the APC was basking in the euphoria of its merger, as well as its illusioned dominance of the Nigerian political space and saw nothing wrong in the democratic institutions and the processes.
“It is, therefore, hypocritical that the same APC has turned round in condemnation, simply because it is currently suffering a self-inflicted reversal of fortune.
