Democracy day: ADP, LP describes APC govt as a tragedy

As Nigeria marks the democracy day, political parties and politicians have given their assessment of the state of affairs in the country, especially as it affects economy, saying the administration of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) hasn’t done well

The national chairman of the African Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yagbagi, said in an interview Monday in Abuja that aside from the opportunity it offered for freedom of choice and end to military rule, the democratic experience has been very turbulent.

“You see, if you look at the value of Naira which is the measure or determiner of productivity up of the economy, If anything, it has gone down, and by the day, it is going down. So, democracy has not really brought much to the people in terms of economy – I am talking in terms of deliverables, in terms on the economic impacts on the people.

“You can talk of freedom, that yes, you have freedom of choice, but even that freedom of choice, is also to a very large extent of being hijacked by rigging. So, often than not, you don’t find the wishes of the people expressed, allow to take routes really, what happens is different from what people want.

On how he would describe the last three years of the APC-led administration, Yagbagi said: “I think what has happened to Nigeria is a tragedy. Three years of APC is a tragedy because you know what I mean, it is a tragedy. Tragedy in the sense that those things government should do, hit the ground running.

“Three years on, they are still making appointments. key political, economic positions, statutory bodies that are supposed to really guide, manage, advise on how the economy should be run. Still, some of them are not yet on board.”

On his part, the Labour Party National Chairman, Abdulsalam Abdulkadir said the country has witnessed abuses of human rights and disrespect to rule of law.

He also lamented what it described as growing poverty and suffering in the country.

“There is nothing to celebrate on this democracy day, what we are witnessing is mere civilian rule but with military mentality. What we have now there is no respect to law and order.

“You can see the report of the international human rights organization on the rate of abuses in the country.

“In terms of development, Nigeria is still backwards, we are still a consumer nation with not much local products to export. There is poverty everywhere and people are suffering terribly in this country.

“In terms of the wellbeing of the people, most of the governments are owing workers salary and pension. As a result many pensioners are dying out of hardship and frustration.
The way forward is for Nigerians to prepare to install a new government that will remedy the shortcomings of the APC-led administration in 2019,” he said.

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