Economic Crisis: PDP demands Buhari’s resignation

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday railed against President Muhammadu Buhari, accusing his administration of incompetence, and saying he should step down after the nation slipped into economic recession.

“We join all well meaning Nigerians to call on Mr. Buhari to resign if he is unable to reverse the disastrous economic decline he has brought on Nigerians,” the party said hours after figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics confirmed that Nigeria had slipped into recession.

The NBS said Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product contracted by 2.06 per cent, marking the first major recession in 29 years for Africa’s largest economy.

Analysts have long predicted that Nigeria’s economy was heading for a recession amid a shrinking naira and diminishing revenues occasioned by low crude prices.

The downward spiral has led to an increase in the number of Nigerians struggling to eke out a living, fueling fears of an outbreak of social unrest.

Behavioural economic experts and religious leaders recently raised concernsabout the dangers of leaving the country’s expanding youth population without means of livelihood for too long.

The PDP in its statement Wednesday saw the crisis as a direct consequence of Mr. Buhari’s “ineptitude and incompetent” approach to economic management which were a rehash of the “archaic and incoherent economic policies” he similarly pursued as the head of a military junta between 1983 and 1985.

“Nothing better showcases the absolute ineptitude and incompetence of the Muhammadu Buhari administration than the GDP, Inflation and unemployment figures released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics today,” the PDP said in a statement signed by Deji Adeyanju, its director of new media.