UPDATE: Why APC must accept responsibility for Nigeria’s economic downturn – Governors

The All Progressives Congress on Monday said the lingering economic crisis in the country should no longer be blamed on the 16-year streak of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The party said it could no longer continue to blame past administrations for the enormous hardship Nigerians are grappling with.

The party’s new position was disclosed by the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, when he briefed reporters shortly after he and other APC governors met with President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House on Monday afternoon.

“We must take responsibility and we must never shift the responsibility to anybody,” Mr. Okorocha said. “We are responsible for everything happening in Nigeria.”

“The good, the bad, the ugly but we are promising Nigerians that we shall fix it,” Mr. Okorocha said.

The admission followed months of stern denial from the leadership of the APC and the Buhari administration, who maintained that Nigerians should direct their anger towards the PDP.

Between mid-August and early September, the APC joined issues with the PDP for the latter’s role in bringing Nigeria to its current unbearable state.

The party’s chairman, John Oyegun, admonished the PDP to desist from commenting about economic matters, saying the party should apologise for its 16-year rule instead.

“It was stomach-churning and downright immoral for the ruinous PDP, which has yet to show remorse or exhibit any form of penitence for presiding over the mindless looting of the nation’s treasury, to now put itself up as the saviour of Nigerians,” Mr. Oyegun said in an August 22 statement.

Mr. Oyegun reiterated his position on September 5, a week after the country officially plunged into recession.

Barely a week later on September 22,President Buhari again blamed the PDP for ruining the economy.

“After 16 years of PDP regime, there was no power supply, no much infrastructure, no rail and no security; this is what it left for us,’’ Mr. Buhari said.

But Mr. Okorocha, who is also the chairman of APC Governors’ Forum, said the party had now recognised that Nigerians are experiencing untold economic pains and his party had commenced initiatives that would address them.

“We share the pains of Nigerians, every human being must feel it,” Mr. Okorocha said. “We also feel what they are going through but we are asking for a little patience let us do things the right way and do it once and for all.”