The All Progressives Congress has emphasised the urgent need to confront the weaponisation of ethnicity, religion, and misinformation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The party urged its spokespersons nationwide to rise to the challenge and address these issues decisively.
Speaking at a capacity-building seminar for APC Zonal and State Publicity Secretaries on Friday, the party’s National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, highlighted the positive impact of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of exchange rates, on infrastructure development and economic opportunities.
Basiru, in his remarks, expressed concern over the growing ethnic divisions in the country, noting that such fault lines were not as pronounced during his youth as they became during the 2023 elections.
The APC National Secretary stated, “This gathering is also important because even before the 2023 election, we have seen the weaponisation of falsehood as an instrument of politics in Nigeria. Now, people will go and pick images from Somalia, images from Chad, images from where there is war ravage, and put an address to it in Nigeria in order to create misinformation.
“We also have a situation where people who have had the opportunity of governing the sub-national, and without any achievement beyond establishing their factory, will come and be telling us what happened in China, in Malaysia, when at the backyard of their own yard, their community is ravaged with floods, and they did not put a single school building for eight years of administration.
“So this gathering is important for us to be able to tackle those who have also weaponised ethnicity. Growing up in Nigeria, ethnic fault lines were not as pronounced as they have been made ahead of the 2023 election, and unfortunately, they are still carrying that over post-2023 election.
“Another front line is that of religion — the weaponisation of religion on the grounds of politics. Even people whose sanctimonious attitude is very dubious now try to wear the toga of religion for the purpose of political ascendancy. These are part of the efforts that we need to put in place. How do we effectively tackle the weaponisation of falsehoods, the weaponisation of ethnicity, and the weaponisation of religious bigotry in our country?”
Basiru stated that current data clearly indicates the economy is performing strongly and that the APC-led Federal Government is receiving praise from credible and knowledgeable sources.
He noted that it is ironic that in Nigeria, people often celebrate when the International Monetary Fund or World Bank criticises the country, but tend to dismiss or ignore their commendation when it favours the APC administration.
The APC scribe continued, “So we, as a government, must also show that contrary to the doom-based scenario of people who thought the Naira would climb to 2,000 and beyond 2,000, the Naira has become one of the best-performing currencies in Nigeria. It showed that what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done is to let us get integrated into the structure of the global economy, and that has also brought investment, massive ones into the Nigerian economy.
“Today, our oil production is now peaking at 1.7 million barrels per day because they were able to attract investment in those areas.”
In his remarks, Alake stated that the federal government has been playing its part by increasing revenue allocations to sub-national entities, while also initiating significant infrastructure projects.
The Minister stated, “If you look at the general situation in Nigeria, particularly in terms of governance, you’ll notice that at the macro level, the federal government has put in place a lot of policy initiatives and reforms in particular, and those reforms have had a very salutary effect on the macroeconomy of the country.
“Now, the macroeconomic indices are really shooting up. The value of the currency is stabilised. So that’s what the President did: remove the hydra-headed oil fuel subsidy, which had been dragging the economy of the country back.
“A lot of people had been milking the country dry through the phoney fuel subsidy, which was going into private pockets. But now that the subsidy has been removed, if you recall, too, there’s hardly a government in this country that did not recognise the need to remove the fuel subsidy. But none had the courage to do so. And so Nigeria was getting deeper and deeper into economic straits. So this government came, and the President removed the fuel subsidy with a fiat.
“And then, of course, merged the dual exchange rate. Now, these were two hydra-headed economic monsters that were dragging the economy of Nigeria backwards. So once these were removed, a lot more money and revenue became accruable to the sub-nationals, apart from the federal government.
“The states and the local governments had much more money than before. And if you also do a kind of content analysis, you’ll discover that a lot of the states that were in a deep debt morass have cleared their debt right now. And there’s more money for them to embark on infrastructural development.”
Alake said the federal government is also embarking on major infrastructural development across the country.
On what the government is doing to bring down the price of commodities, he stated, “Now, when people say, ‘Oh, this thing is expensive, this rises, that automatically is expensive’, that’s the micro. But if you don’t stabilise the macro, you cannot get the advantages of the micro.
“So, when, for instance, there is stability in the economy through more revenue accruing to the sub-nationals to embark on infrastructural development, then employment generation will begin to rise. And with employment generation, production will begin to grow.
“With growth in production, there will be more money circulating within the economy. So, the micro will then eventually be taken care of. When there are productive ventures in the country, your currency will automatically become stronger.”
https://punchng.com/apc-urges-media-team-to-counter-falsehoods-promote-tinubus-reforms/
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