The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the rate of unemployment in the country, saying the All Progressives Congress (APC) has overstretched the limits of Nigerians.

It also accused the ruling party of trivialising and politicising the frightening level under it and warned the APC to get ready to face the consequences.

The main opposition party made the claims in a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.

“The PDP holds that for attempting to distort and muffle facts on unemployment, which are already in the public domain, the APC has confirmed that it remains an automated lying machine, which has never been interested in the welfare of Nigerians,” the PDP alleged in the statement.

It added, “It is imperative to also state that with its latest deportment, the APC has completed the trappings of a dying party and leaves no one in doubt that it has always been a power-grabbing special purpose vehicle, which has now come to the end of its journey.”

A Serious National Problem

The opposition party quoted the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, as saying in a publication that unemployment rate was at a frightening 23.1 per cent while raising alarm that the rate would likely hit 33.5 per cent in the new year.

It insisted that the number of unemployed persons and job losses across the formal and informal sectors had surge under the present administration.

The PDP added that Ngige, while declaring open a two-day workshop on unemployment, reportedly described the situation as scary.

“The APC also chose not to remember that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in an earlier report, stated that 16 million Nigerians (which has now risen to 18 million) were unemployed, 18 million more were underemployed while another 27.44 million, reportedly refused to work in 2016 for various reasons not unrelated to frustration in the polity under the APC administration.

“It is completely unpardonable that rather than accepting the truth and seeking for a solution to the looming unemployment Armageddon, the APC seeks to trivialise and politicise a serious national problem,” the PDP claimed.

It also accused the ruling party of justifying its wrongdoings and engaging in “under-the-table system of selective employment of a few”.

Among other allegations, the PDP asked the APC to “take responsibility for the mortgaging of our nation with the $83 billion debt accumulated by its administration”.