By Omeiza Ajayi
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has said the collapse of 767 manufacturing companies and the distress facing 335 others expose President Bola Tinubu’s claims of economic prosperity as nothing more than propaganda.
In a statement on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said no government could credibly celebrate macroeconomic recovery while the productive base of the economy was grinding to a halt.
“A government cannot claim its economic policies are working when the country’s industrial sector is actively shutting down. Nations do not build prosperity by celebrating macroeconomic statistics while their factories close their gates,” the statement read.
The Presidency had insisted that the administration’s reforms are yielding positive results and rejected allegations of fiscal recklessness, excessive borrowing and mismanagement of public finances.
However, citing figures from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN, Atiku said manufacturers were sitting on approximately ₦2.14 trillion worth of unsold finished goods, not for lack of demand but because millions of Nigerians had lost the purchasing power to buy basic necessities.
He listed multinational companies including Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Kimberly-Clark as having either shut down or exited local manufacturing operations, alongside indigenous firms such as Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing, which he said had also been forced to suspend production.
The former Vice President added that local manufacturers spent about ₦1.11 trillion on diesel alone to keep factories running after electricity tariffs for Band A customers rose sharply, deepening the cost of doing business.
Atiku dismissed the Presidency’s earlier defence of the administration’s Gross Domestic Product GDP growth figures, arguing that growth on paper meant little if it did not translate into affordable prices, stable jobs and functioning industry.
“Factories do not shut down because the opposition writes press statements. Manufacturers do not accumulate trillions of naira in unsold goods because critics hold press conferences. Multinational companies do not abandon billion-naira investments because of political rhetoric. They leave because the economic environment has become increasingly hostile to production, investment and enterprise,” he said.
He insisted that the real verdict on the administration’s economic record would not come from government spokespersons but from the state of the factories themselves.
“No amount of propaganda can erase that reality,” he declared.
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