All Is Not Well With PDP – Metuh

Sat, 01/09/2012 - | STANLEY NKWOCHA

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Following criticism that the country had fared badly under the party’s rule, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it was neither beyond making mistakes nor insulated from crisis like any other political party in the world. But the party maintained that the nation has witnessed steady progress in all sectors of the economy under its charge since the return to democratic rule.
At a world press conference called to mark the party’s 14th anniversary yesterday, national publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, admitted that all had not been well with the party since its birth.
However, Metuh credited the PDP with changing the country’s status from “a pariah nation which it once was to an influential global player” since the return to civil rule in 1999.
He stated that while the party was not unaware of the expectations of Nigerians, it would be wrong to assert that the nation had been worse off under the PDP.
Metuh said: “Economically, the PDP leadership has fast-tracked Nigeria into the digital world of information and communication technology. The mobile telecoms market in Nigeria, which started in 2001, is rated as the fastest- growing in the world. The PDP government indeed provided the enabling environment and gave the push for investments in this sector to thrive.
“Our party has also steadied the ship of the Nigerian economy which was hitherto threatened by activities of militants in the Niger Delta region. Through a well-articulated amnesty programme, aggrieved insurgents have been re-integrated into the Nigerian society and now productively engaged in fruitful activities.
“Similarly, the party has also embarked on a massive revamping of infrastructure with improvement in various sectors. The massive investment in the railways is gradually yielding dividends as intra and intercity rail transport has commenced in some major cities in the country.
Thousands of kilometres of roads, which were hitherto death-traps, are witnessing massive rehabilitation while some are completed. The Benin-Lagos road, Onitsha-Owerri road, the East-West road, Kano-Maiduguri road, among others, are examples of previously abandoned projects which have received needed attention under the PDP -led federal government.”
Metuh added that the PDP would soon made public its position on the controversial N5,000 note proposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the issue of state police.

SOURCE: 1 September 2012.