The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has claimed credit for the N804 billion bailout fund ordered to be released to distressed states’ governments by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, the PDP said a significant amount of the bailout came from savings accumulated in the Excess Crude Account handed over to the Buhari administration by the last PDP-led government.
“This development is in clear contradiction to the earlier impression given by President Buhari to Nigerians and the international community that they should not expect much from his administration in its first 100 days because according him, upon assumption of office, he met a virtually empty treasury.
“We want to believe that given the President’s release of such huge amount, he may have realized that he was earlier misdirected on the actual financial state of the nation at the time he took over. In this regard, we expect the President, as a respected statesman to do the needful to correct that erroneous impression.
“Furthermore, we expect President Buhari’s APC administration as direct beneficiary of this savings initiated by past PDP administrations to appreciate the strategic importance of always saving for rainy days and as such guarantee prudent and transparent management of the nation’s resources now under its care,” the party said.
The party charged the APC as a party in government to put its house in order, desist from what it termed injecting confusion and distracting the President from settling down to form a government and face the enormous challenges of governance, especially the implementation of his long list of campaign promises to Nigerians.