The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm about moves by the presidency to “start conjuring false statistics to cover up for its failures in governance.”
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party described as shocking President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged “resort to discrediting of development statistics from credible independent organizations simply because they exposed the rot and failures of his administration.”
The PDP said that the nation was again “embarrassed when President Buhari directed his newly constituted Presidential Economic Advisory Council (EAC) as well as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs not to work with statistics from independent agencies, but to rely only on self-sourced data.”
The PDP statement came after President Buhari met in Abuja behind closed doors with members of the recently constituted EAC. The EAC which was constituted on September 16, replaced the Economic Management Team (EMT), headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The functions of EAC, chaired by Prof. Doyin Salami, include fiscal analysis, economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues working with the relevant cabinet members and heads of monetary and fiscal agencies.
“The EAC will have monthly technical sessions as well as scheduled quarterly meetings with the President. The Chairman may, however, request for unscheduled meetings if the need arises,” an earlier statement by presidential aide, Femi Adesina said.
