The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council says the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, didn’t criticise President Muhammadu Buhari’s over Nigeria’s foreign exchange rate management.
Tinubu, while speaking at the APC presidential campaign rally in Calabar, the Cross River State capital on Tuesday, expressed displeasure over the depreciation of naira, stressing that the naira/dollar exchange rate was about N200 to a dollar when President Buhari’s administration took over in 2015 but it has depreciated to about N800/$ at the parallel market.
“They never understand what money laundering is all about. They never understand keeping our currency in the dark corner of their room.
“To change and the torture moved the exchange rate from 200 to 800. If they had repaired it, if they had arrested this, we won’t be where we are today. We will be greater. They don’t know the way, they don’t know how to think, they don’t know how to do,” Tinubu had said.
Speaking on the reactions that trailed the former governor’s statement, the Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said Tinubu didn’t criticise Buhari-led administration at the rally.
Onanuga stated that Tinubu directed his criticism to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, noting that the former governor did not lash out at President Buhari.
He said: “The reference to exchange rate was not in any way an attack on the Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress administration but an attempt to capture how the economic mismanagement of the PDP created forex crisis in the country since 2015.
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“Anyone who followed the entire sequence and context of what Asiwaju said at the rally in Calabar will know he directed his missiles against PDP and Atiku. Let’s we forget, the PDP left the forex reserve at $28 billion by May 2015, when Buhari took over despite unprecedented revenue from crude oil.
“Even with the massive oil theft and low price of crude, until recently, President Buhari had built up the reserve to about $38 billion. The PDP in 1999 met the exchange rate at N85 to one US dollar in 1999 and left it at N230 in 2015.
“The futile attempt to misrepresent Asiwaju Tinubu by the mischievous PDP media did not detract from his central message.
“Our candidate explicitly said the people should not follow PDP and Atiku because they don’t know the road.
“Asiwaju Tinubu could not have meant President Buhari does not know road, having celebrated, numerous times, the achievements of the Buhari administration. Tinubu had also said at campaign fora he would build on the achievements, when elected on 25 February.
“It is simply illogical that the same Asiwaju would attack the Buhari administration of not knowing the road.
“In contrast, throughout this campaign up till now, Asiwaju Tinubu has consistently said PDP and all the opposition parties put together do not know the road to prosperity for Nigeria. He also said the competing candidates do not have the track record he amassed as governor of Lagos.
“As the frontrunner in the race, he has promised to implement his robust Action Plan that will bring socio-economic prosperity to our country.
“We are not unmindful of the antics of Thisday and Arise News to deliberately misrepresent our candidate and accentuate anything they think will project Asiwaju Tinubu in a bad light since the beginning of this electioneering circle.
“We want to state categorically that all the machinations of the opposition elements to put a wedge between President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu will fail.
“APC, its leadership and President Buhari are strongly united behind our presidential candidate,” the statement read.
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