How Buhari’s presidency ‘attempts’ to carryout horrible corruption – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has claimed that President
Muhammadu Buhari attempted to "doctor unemployment figures" in the
country.

PDP stated that the alleged directive by Buhari to the
Statistician-General of Nigeria, Mr. Yemi Kale, "to change the data on
unemployment in the country and create impression of massive job
creation by his administration was a horrible corruption."

Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,
had on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, said Kale
failed to reflect the rising rate of employment in the agriculture
sector.

Shehu said during a recent meeting with the Federal Executive Council,
Kale admitted that the NBS was only focusing on the creation of
white-collar jobs and not the agriculture sector and the informal
sector.

However, the former ruling party berated the Buhari-led administration
for attempting to manipulate official statistics with regards to
unemployment.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said
it "condemns in totality, the brazen attempt to manipulate official
statistics in favour of Buhari's administration saying it is a new low
in the APC-led government's established culture of deceit, falsehood
and criminal subterfuge, in its desperation to hang on to power.

"In this desperation, the Buhari Presidency is now trying to force the
Statistician General of Nigeria to alter genuine data and smuggle in
fictitious employment figures.

"Our party holds that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is a
professional body, insulated from government interferences, with
statutory responsibility to compute credible and verifiable data and
statistics, for national planning.

"We are therefore shocked at this attempt by the Buhari Presidency to
corrupt our system through the falsification of employment statistics
just to shore up its failed economic policies that have brought untold
hardship on the Nigerian people.

"Nigerians can now see why the Buhari Presidency has deliberately
starved the NBS of funds; to prevent it from conducting surveys and
releasing further data that highlight the failures of the APC
administration.

"Unfortunately, President Buhari appears to have forgotten that
statistics is like a mirror. If the government does not like the
ugliness of its reflection, then the problem is not with the mirror.

"If the NBS backs down for political expediency or intimidation, it
would have dealt a mortal blow to the credibility of official
statistics emanating from Nigeria. In the future, such official
reports from it would be regarded worthless and unreliable.

"We, therefore, call on the Statistician General not to succumb to the
blackmail of the Buhari Presidency but remain on the path of truth and
facts, in the course of his duty."