PDP, APC can’t take Nigeria to promise land—Lekan Balogun

…Jonathan, Buhari made blunders-

Joshua Laoye || High chief of Ibadan land, who is also a  South West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and a member of the Party’s Board of trustees, Senator Lekan Balogun has said that both former President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari are responsible for the present political and economic situation in  Nigeria.

He was also of the opinion that the two leading political parties the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party cannot take the country to the promise land as there would be a new political force that would consume the two parties.

Senator Balogun who made this known in an exclusive interview recently argued that Jonathan’s government made lots of blunders and the Buhari’s government is already making its own.

According to him, both the government of Jonathan and the present government did nothing to help the appreciation of the naira.

He said that the economy had been bad for a long period and the attitude of the previous governments even under former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not help the situation.

He pointed out that the government has not shown serious concern to show that it has the solution to the present situation now, because things are getting worse every day.

He further argued that if the government of Buhari is serious it should let the people know all the things they are doing to put the situation under control so that the people would not feel the pains of the ongoing economic recession.

He said that the only way out of the present mess Nigeria has found itself is for both the state and the federal governments to fashion out a policy that would give room for economic growth ‘’ The way things are now, shows that the seriousness is not there and that is why the people are not feeling the impact of what they are doing, if at all they are doing something’’

According to him, ‘’Like I said before, the only option to getting out of the mess we have found ourselves is to completely ensure that all hands are on deck and that we have to develop an alternative to oil and we have to ensure that agriculture and the development of our mineral resources are intensified to boost our economy.’’

Senator Balogun also condemned politicians for aggravating the situation as they deceive people without keeping their electoral promises.

He further explained that for the country to get out of the woods, the country must go back to agriculture as an alternative to oil which we all depended on that made us misplace our priorities. ‘’Again we must now go into manufacturing because right now we are still importing goods which consume our foreign exchange The naira is just like a toilet roll now. With what is on ground, we just have to have an alternative to oil.’’

The Ibadan High Chief also predicts the collapse of the PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) saying that they are not the political parties that would take the country to the promise land. He pointed out that the formation of the APC was ill-conceived and that is why the party is facing serious problems both at the federal level and the states under its control, saying that jostling for control and political offices would at the end of the day cause commotions in the party which would make them split.

As for the PDP he said he could not see how the party could come out of its present crisis, adding that if there was no resolution to the crisis by 2018, the party would disintegrate and the fragment of those who would remain there would not make any impact to sustain the tempo and the clout which existed in the party.

At the end of the day, he argued that there would be realignments of forces that would bring about another political party, pointing out that he still stood by what he said two years ago that a new political party would emerge in 2018. ‘’Then, when I said it, was not obvious. Now it is obvious and I still stand by what I said then.  Before the end of 2018 things will start unfolding. But let us wait till then, obviously some forces would come together and the political situation would eventually take a new dimension.’’