PDP Created Forex Crisis That Weakened Naira Exchange Rate—Onanuga

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Mr Bayo Onanuga, has again said his principal, Mr Bola Tinubu, did not attack President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Cross River State when he said the Naira, under the present government, has lost its value since he assumed office in 2015.

Addressing party faithful and others at the campaign rally of the APC at the U.J Esuene Stadium, the former Governor of Lagos State said, “They (the government of Mr Buhari) moved the exchange rate from N200 to N800 (in the black market).

“If they had repaired it, if they have arrested this, we won’t be where we are today. We will have been greater.

“They don’t know the way, they don’t know how to think, they don’t know how to do [it].”

But in a statement on Wednesday, Mr Onanuga blamed the media for misinterpreting Mr Tinubu’s comments, saying he was only referring to the PDP.

According to him, the APC presidential candidate never blamed the current administration for weakening the Naira in the currency market, stating that PDP created the forex crisis the country was experiencing.

“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.

“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,” a part of the statement today by Mr Onanuga said.

“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 the 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 for not knowing the road,” he added.

“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 declared.