Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says Nigerians are right to be disappointed on the state of the economy, but that they should direct their anger to the “right quarters”.In a piece entitled: ‘What is President Buhari doing with the economy?’, Shehu attributed the poor situation of things to years of mismanagement and corruption.
He advised the people to “keep a fiery memory of the past” in order to avoid repeating mistakes.
“Nigerians are right to be disappointed but they must direct their anger at the right quarters. The bad management and corruption of the past are firmly to blame,” he wrote.
“People are still talking about who ran governments in 1865, you want us to forget those who left government last year?
“Let us keep a fiery memory of the past so that we don’t repeat its mistakes. Look back, look ahead. The future must of necessity be built on the foundations of the past,” he said.
“To avoid repeating the past mistakes, Nigerians must come to terms with what went wrong with the past, how bad were things, what was done wrongly, what the past government should have done, before we come to what needs to be done to right those wrongs.
“Believe me, episodes from the Jonathan era can fill books, and other possibilities such as courtroom drama thriller.”
Shehu said in addition to failure to spend money on what was needed by past governments, no savings was made.
“As explained by President Buhari again and again, trumpeted by Madam Adeosun and other senior officials, we solely relied on oil, the price of which was as high as US$140 per barrel,” he wrote.
“Government simply reticulated oil revenue through personal spending by corrupt leaders, wasteful expenses and salaries. This was done rather than investing in what would grow the economy.
“Economies grow due to capital investment in assets like seaports, airports, power plants, railways, roads and housing. Nigeria has not recorded a single major infrastructural project in the last 10 years. In short, the money was mismanaged.”
The presidential spokesman explained that by the time the Buhari administration took over power in May 2015, the country’s debt had accumulated to a level it was before the Paris Club debt forgiveness.
He said in the bid to resuscitate the economy, Buhari’s government flagged off its anti-corruption fight.
“No government has ever considered the poor like this one. Under the current budget, the administration devoted N500Bn for social intervention programmes for those who need and deserve support,” Shehu said.
“There are also programmes for affordable housing with mortgages which will transform thousands from tenant status to home ownership.
“Any process that will endure, must involve some pain but things will begin to improve. There is always a time lag between policy and effect. That is why the bad effects of past policies are manifesting now.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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No problem, We are waiting for your tenure to finish, you are almost finishing 2years out of your 4 years , we will vote you out.continue your blame game, you inherit both assets and liablitioes. You only talk about problems you inherted and not the good things you met on ground.
ReplyDeleteNigerians did that in the 2015 election by voting in Buhari. They are now angry with him because he doesn't know and understand anything about contemporary economy. PMB and people like you will keep blaming the past administration and remind Nigerians about what they did wron. That is something we already know. What people want is solution, not accusation. The problem with PMB now started from his election campaign period. He has people with shallow knowledge of economy in his team and he continues with them till date. The dynamics of modern economy are too complex for them to understand. At best PMB himself is only good in civil service economy by paying salaries of civil servants. Fayemi, who didn't do anything spectacular in developing the economy of ekiti state, a state that relied mainly in collecting federal allocation was the chief economy guru in the Buhari's campaign team. Osibanjo that heads the National economy by his position as VP is a successful legal practioner not in economy. Adeosun, the minister of finance that's speaking phonetics everywhere up and down worked as a commissioner of Ogun state by helping the state to receive allocation from federal.These people are not really fit to manage Nigerian economy at large. PMB may need to expand the economic management team and inject people like Okonjo Iweala, Charles Soludo, Sanusi Lamido, Pat Utomi and others to his economic team
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Shehu . We have directed our complains to ALLAH and he will do it for us... Ameen.... Ab.. ha.
ReplyDeleteIf we had used our memories well, maybe we won't be where we are today. Coz history says under the same man we were exactly where we are now.
ReplyDeleteHowever we used our hearts that people change and maybe PMB was a changed man. How very wrong we were.
Come 2019, our memories will direct us not to votes for thieves or liers maybe we may get a third option before then. That's my earnest prayers.
Akwuya! We have directed our complain to ALLAH.
ReplyDelete