By Bassey Asuquo
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described the reaction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to the recent exit of ride e-hailing outfit, Uber, from Nigeria as ignorant and embarrassing.
This, according to the group, is because the company had clearly and unambiguously given its reason for leaving Nigeria and Uganda.
In a statement by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG noted that only a party shamelessly fixated on surfing and scrummaging the internet for any negative narrative on the country could embarrass itself with such a pedestrian position on Uber’s business operation.
It said, “Any Nigerian who has been monitoring the political scene in recent months would have accurately predicted that a ruddellsss party like the African Democratic Congress (ADC) would jump on Uber’s exit to mock the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This was exactly what it sought to do in the aftermath of the Osun gubernatorial election where it performed woefully by claiming it worked with Governor Adeleke to defeat the APC.
“While Uber had emphasised that it was leaving Nigeria and Uganda owing to it’s global restructuring that also entailed laying off about 3,300 employees worldwide, ADC opted to describe its exit from Nigeria as a reaction to the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“Like they have done severally, ADC and its media handlers have proved to be out of touch with reality. This may be because these people are not fully on ground or that they are too much in a haste to attack President Tinubu.
“If they were in touch with the reality of ride hailing in the country, they would have better understood the situation or known that Uber had been having issues with its riders in Nigeria.
“We would have been more worried if Uber had blamed the Nigerian economy or government policies which other ride hailing companies could also use as excuses to follow Uber out of the country but those ones are assuring Nigerians that they are up to the task of filling any gap.
“But we know that aside from leaving Nigeria and Uganda with effect from September 2, the company had earlier left Tanzania and Cote D’Ivoire last year.”
TMSG also noted that Uber’s decision to invest in a business that thrives on the Nigerian market shows how dishonest ADC was in its position.
“It is also interesting that as Uber is exiting e-hailing business in the country, it has acquired a major stake in Spanish startup, Glovo, which incidentally lists Nigeria as its fastest-growing market in the world. In three years, Glovo paid its Nigerian partners N71 billion to underline the level of its profitability in Nigeria.
“This is in the same economy which the rudderless party has described as a “graveyard of businesses”. So while exiting one business, Uber is investing in another one with a major footprint in Nigeria. This clearly proves ADC wrong on the impact of the Tinubu administration on businesses in the country.
“We are also aware that it is in this same economy on the watch of President Tinubu, that one of the country’s most popular biscuit brands, Okin, is staging a comeback after a 17-year long shutdown of its factory.
“So it beggars belief that a party posturing as an alternative to the ruling APC would be so cheap and loose to go to the extent of playing politics with a strictly business decision of a company,” it said.
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