A former Lagos State governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), now a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Funsho Doherty, has criticised the rising cost of living in Nigeria. Speaking during an interview monitored by Radio Now’s News Desk, Mr. Doherty blamed the current administration’s alleged profligate spending for worsening economic hardships across the country.
He said, “remember that this is a time when the people, the average person, is being asked to make unbelievable sacrifices. They have seen their cost of living skyrocket and go through the roof. People have seen the cost of petrol go from 100 and something to 1,000. Everybody’s experiencing the cost of living issue that we’re having. The reason why we have these issues is because of profligate government spending in the past. That is why people are going through this issue now. And so in a time when people are in crunch to continue with this kind of action, this kind of behavior in government, I think it’s unconscionable and I think it must be challenged.”
Mr. Doherty lamented that the quality of life for Nigerians today is significantly poorer compared to what it was under previous PDP administrations. He argued that the government’s policies have failed to address critical economic challenges.
“If you want to talk about PDP-APC, APC has been in power since 2015. This is 2024, almost 10 years. So referring anything back 10 years does not even hold water at all.If you go and look at all the metrics, whether it’s cost of living, whether it’s GDP, whether it’s our economic standing, whether it is GDP per capital, even if you take it to the basic quality of life that people are living, and ask them 10 years ago when APC came, and today, they should compare and contrast. If you ask 10 people, I’m sure you’ll get nine answers that they are worse off today than they were 10 years ago. So let’s not even politicize it.This is a basic issue. There’s a government in power. There are laws.The government by its action appears to be acting in disregard of those laws. And this action can have severe economic impacts, including dire impacts on the people who are going through unprecedented hardship, and we must stand against that.”
The politician also revealed his intention to contest for the Lagos State governorship position in the 2027 elections, expressing optimism about his ability to bring transformative leadership to the state if elected.
He said, “i’m in the PDP now and I see no reason why I should not pursue that path and so I have every intention to. Ultimately the decision will be made by the party as to who represents the party but personally I see no reason why I should not because the things I believe we can do to move Lagos to become a city of the future. You know time will tell, 2027 is around the corner but clearly the people are in a place of pain and you know you can’t keep telling people who are in a place of pain that they should be patient.Lagos has been run by APC for almost a generation, it’s almost 30 years okay so and nations have moved from third world to first world in the course of a generation so I think it is time and there will be challenges but also you know those are the things that we have to take on. I think that when the people decide what you cannot stop the people, when the people decide they will make their mandate felt.”
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