The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said that Nigerians are becoming poorer under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
The party observed that across the over country, families are working harder and earning lesser and lesser, with food prices rising faster than wages.
Deploring the harsh economic conditions of majority of Nigerians, the ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark, said on Monday that salaries and incomes can no longer guarantee food on people’s tables.
Mark, who spoke in Abuja during the inauguration of ADC’s Policy and Manifesto Committee, lamented that power supply remains epileptic even as tariffs increase astronomically.
“Strangely, the APC government continues to aggravate the citizen’s tax burdens. Insecurity continues to disrupt the peoples social and economic life.
“Nigerians are suffering today perhaps more than any other time in our history. Poverty stares us in the face. Yes, poverty and hardship have always existed but the hardship and poverty that Nigerians are experiencing under the APC administration has gotten worse.
“This situation has been brought about and compounded by government needlessly vicious policies. What Nigerians are, therefore, desperately looking for are credible alternative ideas, actions, and policies.
“They want policies that would improve their lives today and lay a solid foundation on which they can improve their future. They want policies that show compassion.
“Nigerians are not looking for clever arguments. They want policies and actions that show that the government understands what they are going through and is prepared to act with clarity, courage, and most importantly, with compassion,” Mark said.
According to him, if elected, an ADC administration will put the people first, saying that Nigerians are holding the APC government responsible for their suffering.
“Nigerians are looking for who will ease the pains. They want real, practical solutions that address the challenges of today, not policies that expect them to continue to give and give and give,” he said.
The party chairman observed that the problem is not that Nigeria suffers from a shortage of ideas but a failure to connect ideas to reality.
Continuing, he said, “Too often, policy in this country has been an academic exercise detached from the very people it is meant to serve.
“Documents are produced, committees are set up, reports are written, white papers are produced, yet nothing changes in the lives of the people, which is what matters most.”
Addressing members of the committee, Senator Mark said policy is not about sounding intelligent or about volume or complexity.
He urged them to resist the temptation to treat symptoms while ignoring causes, go beneath the surface, and think outside of the box.
“You must ask hard questions about why things are not working in this country. This is the burden before you.
“In recent years, government has continued to regale us with statistics about increased revenue, economic growth, and GDP performance.
“These figures are meaningless when they do not positively affect the lives of the people. A growing economy that leaves the majority behind in poverty is fundamentally flawed. Economic progress must be measured by its impact on people’s lives, not by statistics alone.”any
He continued, “Take energy, for example. When energy is expensive and unreliable, productivity collapses, businesses struggle, jobs disappear, and poverty deepens.
“Any serious policy conversation must be anchored on a simple but crucial question; how do we make energy affordable and accessible to the majority of our people?
“Government has removed fuel subsidy. The question is not whether subsidy removal is desirable or not. The real question is whether the people now paying more for fuel can see tangible benefits reflected in other areas of their lives.
“Clearly, the answer is no. Nigerians who are paying more for fuel, for food, for medications, for transportation, housing, and electricity are asking what would the ADC do differently.”
He charged ADC stakeholders to on clarity of ideas, firm commitment, and measurable outcomes that the people can see and feel, and not propaganda.
In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the committee, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, described Nigeria under the APC as a contractor-governed nation.
According to him, elected leaders in the APC at all levels don’t implement the manifesto they approved and presented to the Nigerian people.
“So we are going to have policies that the ordinary man can identify with, programmes that the ordinary man can identify with.”
