APC Has Done Well Since It Regained Power In 2015 – Tony Momoh

Popular journalist and lawyer, Prince Tony Momoh has come out to say APC has done well since it regained power.

He recently revealed that he expects the party to retain power in 2023 if they can keep up the current performance.

According to him, APC promised 3 things in 2015, ensuring security, fighting corruption and reworking the economy, and they have been making good on their vow.

He added that despite coming into a crippled economy, Buhari and those in his government have done well to remedy the situation.

His words, “Yes. The party assumed power in 2015, promising three main things on which to hinge its operations viz: ensuring security, fighting corruption and reworking the economy.”

“As of the time they came, everybody believed that we had a boom in the economy where oil sold for $100 per barrel but immediately we came in, you saw what happened. We were welcomed by a recession in which the price of crude went below $50. Anybody who is in government knows that governance is based on a budget and the budget is composed of two things; what you spend on running the government and what you spend on developing facilities. In other words, unless you have the money, which is built up through taxation and other resources, you cannot achieve what you set out to achieve.”

“So, we came in crippled by a failing economy and so, if you want to look at what has happened in the last six years, if you look at the cost of governance and try and look at the 1999 Constitution through budgeting where we have full-time lawmakers, full-time everything unlike the First Republic when we had only part-time lawmakers; So, you discover that as of 2002 when I wrote “To save Nigeria, Let’s Talk”, we were spending more than 80% of our resources on recurrent, and you spend more than 20 to 25 per cent of your resources on recurrent because you are supposed to spend a large number of your resources on development (capital) and not on running the government (recurrent)”

“I have come out to define democracy which we chose as our path, as the luxury of development. Democracy has to do with freedom. Democracy has nothing to do with boreholes, hospitals, education etc. It is about freedom. How free are you? How much freedom is there in the polity and how much of it can you attain?”

“That is Chapter 4 of the Constitution, that is the Fundamental Rights. But since 2019, you would see that we have been pursuing the Fundamental Rights of Chapter 4 rather than the fundamental duties of Chapter 2 which is the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principle of State Policy. It is very clear that before you attain office, you must swear to abide by the provisions of Chapter 2.”

“It may be social, economic, environmental, educational, foreign policy and so on. And anybody who wants to attain office in Nigeria would form a group and apply to be registered as a political party. So, we came frontally to the facts on the ground, a whole economy that would run on borrowed money than on any statistics to grow the economy. Now we spend more on recurrent -two-time Councillors, two time Assembly members, two-time senators etc.”

“Everybody is earning full time and then everybody is also using the opportunity they have the full time to acquire things for themselves full time. There is a collusive constitutional arrangement to deny the hoi polloi what they are entitled to, which is their welfare and security. These were the challenges that confronted us when we came and we promised to address the economy, to address corruption and to address security.”