APC has not failed Nigerians, PGF replies Jega on governance

The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), has faulted the claim by former Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the two major parties in the country have failed Nigerians.

Dr Salihu Lukman, Director-General, PGF, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Jega had in a BBC Hausa Service interview on Aug. 2, claimed that the two parties- the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had failed Nigerians and should not be trusted again.

But Lukman said Jega had no evidence to support his submission.

Lukman said this was because Jega wasn’t just INEC`s former chairman, but a respected political scientist internationally, a theoretician and practitioner whose commitment to Nigeria’s development cannot be faulted.

He said that Jega grew through the ranks of radical activism to become the leader, both intellectually and in the practical field of politics.

He said that the former INEC chairman was able to inspire and influence the emergence of generation of both activists and leaders in the country.

Lukman said as a former INEC chairman, it could not be disputed that Jega successfully led the reform of electoral management in the country.

He both the PDP and APC as expected dismissed Jega’s submission, arguing that he was wrong to conclude that the parties had failed Nigerians.

He added that such allegations should be proven beyond the opinion of people, stressing that Jega did not present any specific validation on his conclusion.

He said it was unfortunate that from the BBC interview, Jega didn’t make any attempt to present how his party, the PRP, will be different.

He said under the administration, there were around 900 active road contracts covering the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of more than 13,000km of federal roads and highways across the country.

He sasid the projects were out of a total number of 35,000km of federal roads in existence according to the Ministry of Works and Housing.

He said that in the agriculture sector some of the specific initiatives of the APC-led government included the National Food Security Council (NFSC) and Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP) among others.

He said since assumption of office in 2015, APC led federal government had been implementing National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which was far more than what any government in the past has done.

He said the goal of the (NSIP) was to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

According to him, millions of poor Nigerians are already benefiting from the initiative, while N36.9 billion in interest-free loans of between N50, 000 to N350,000 has been disbursed to more than 2.3 million Nigerians.

“Apart from these, there are other initiatives in other sectors,’’ the PGF DG stressed.

He added that the achievements cited above, was just to substantiate the point that based on records of performance in government, APC could not be in the same category with the PDP.

Lukman maintained that anybody arguing that these achievements represented failure, would need to substantiate it with convincing evidence of how their impact on the lives of Nigerians translated to negative outcomes.

“Unlike PDP leaders, APC leaders are not in denial of the existence of challenges, in spite of the challenges, however, APC led federal government is making efforts to move the country forward.