Director of Strategic Communication, PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, has warned that Nigeria risks imminent collapse if an experienced economic and human manager like the PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar is not elected as the country’s next president.

Momodu, who linked the free fall of the naira against top global currencies to what he labelled as “the ineptitude” of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists at the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Office in Abuja.

Accompanied by the campaign council’s deputy director-general of operations and one-time governor of Cross River, Liyel Imoke; Delta State commissioner for information, Ehiedu Aniagwu; media adviser to the Atiku Media Office, Paul Ibe, and the council’s director of delegates, Dr. Barakat Sani, Momodu said that Atiku is the most experienced of all the candidates with a proven track track record and capacity to stimulate the Nigerian economy.

“Our candidate is deeply concerned by the cost of living crisis which is daily worsened by the hyperinflation inflicted on Nigerians by the ineptitude of the APC administration,” he said. “We are however assuring Nigerians that help is on the way as the policies enunciated with the policy document ‘Our Covenant with Nigerians’ will not only bring Nigeria out of poverty but also herald an era prosperity and sustainable development in a PDP government, come 2023.

“The declaration by the Central Bank of Nigeria last week that it was going to redesign some denominations in the naira has, expectedly, generated varied reactions from Nigerians. Already, the value on the naira has plummeted since the announcement and efforts must be intensified to address the decline in the value of the naira. The economy, which is on its knees at the moment, can hardly afford further devaluation of the Nigerian currency.

“Nigeria today is in a precarious state and if we do not have an experienced person to manage it, the prediction that Nigeria can collapse can happen easily.”

Momodu said that Nigeria is in a precarious situation, adding that 2023 is not a time for experiment but a time to vote for someone who can hit the ground running from Day-One.

“We are talking about the the most experienced, most productive vice president like Atiku Abubakar, a man who has been able to employ young people from every parts of the country,” said Momodu, referring to his principal’s time as Nigeria’s vice president, from 1999 to 2007, during the two-term tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Momodu, the publisher of the soft-sell magazine, Ovation, went further to throw more light on last week’s visit of Atiku to the United States, where the presidential candidate held council meetings with officials of the U.S. Department of State.

“The visit was a means of strengthening bilateral partnership with the U.S. on the economy, poverty reduction and the fight against insecurity,” said Momodu.

“The insight gotten from the visit will arm our candidate and the PDP to deliver on its promises to the people of Nigeria when he comes into power next year through a seamless partnership with the government of the U.S. on the subject of the economy, insecurity and poverty reduction.”

Momodu also said that the integrity of the forthcoming elections must remain a subject of concern to all lovers of democracy even as the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to deliver an election that is free, fair, and credible.

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Also speaking at Monday’s press parley, Aniagwu said that the country is hopeless under the APC, adding that voting the party back to power, in his opinion, is sequel to fortifying hopelessness.

“The PDP and its leadership are very much concerned about the level of poverty in Nigeria and the APC administration is doing badly in trying to get our people out of the trench,” he said. “The latest is the change in the fall of our currency or whatever you may call it. Our naira has no value.

“Our presidential candidate, his running mate [Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa], and the leadership of our party is indeed very interested in recovering our country from where we are today. His visit to the U.S. is because he has got economic policies that speak to the need to bring jobs back to the people.

“The greatest economy in the world is the United States of America and so if you want to make a difference you must be able to discuss with the masters, both for the purpose of attracting direct investments and for the purpose of taking steps that will help you strengthen the naira that has collapsed very badly,” Aniagwu explained.