Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the call for resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the economy is “preposterous”.
The minister stated this on Friday in Abuja at a forum with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Mohammed said “it is very painful in a situation where the armed robber is now the one sympathising with the victim.
“I read in the dailies that the PDP said that the President must resign because of the economy.
“While we are not going to indulge in blame game, I think we should also be honest enough to admit that we will not have been where we are today if they had done what they ought to do.
“For the party to ask the President to resign is just a big joke.”
The minister said that though the government was not interested in blame game, it was important to set the records straight.
He noted that “agree that Nigeria is not the only country hit by the recession and crash in price of crude, but other countries made savings.
“Saudi Arabia today has about $600 billion in reserve and this is by planning and saving for the future which the past administration failed to do during surplus.
“This is not about blaming other administration, but we believe that one should be honest when criticising.”
Mohammed then assured that the Federal Government would do everything possible to bring the country out of the
economic situation.
The PDP new Media Director, Deji Adeyanju, had in a statement in Abuja, asked the President to resign “for destroying” the economy.
Adeyanju was reacting to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) issued on Wednesday which stated that Nigeria was in recession.
Mohammed also said the Federal Government is aware of the sufferings and pains of Nigerians and is working hard to assuage it.
“We will appeal to Nigerians’ to bear with us we are working day and night to assuage the hardship of Nigerians.
“Only yesterday the Federal Executive Council again approved the Borrowing Rolling Plan for 2016 to 2019, because we need external borrowings and multilateral borrowings to be able to compliment our budget.”
He said the Federal Government will not leave matters, or rest until it found solution to the economic crisis facing the country.
He said the inability of government to fund the 2016 budget, was due largely to the short fall in production and the crash in the price of crude oil.
“These are some of the issues government is grabbling with.
“We hear your cry out there, I want to assure you that sooner than later the government will make sure that the hardship and pains will be assuage.
“People say times are hard, we do appreciate that and we are doing everything to get out of it.
“But we could have also taken an easy way out and passed the burden to the next generation but we don’t want to do that.’’
On the folding up of factories, he explained that it was due to the non availability of foreign exchange.
According to him, companies can no longer get forex to buy raw materials to service their machineries in addition to poor electricity.
He said Nigeria was losing 1000 mega watt of power daily to the activities of militants in the Niger Delta.
The minister, however, said that government was putting in place incentives and measures to ensure that factories do not close up.
On the challenges faced by Aero Airlines, Mohammed said the affected airline had been on receivership for more than two years.
He said that Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) had already chosen a management for the affected company.
“When a company folds off like that, it could be as a result of many factors, after all we once had a national carrier.’’
The minister also stressed the need for the diversification of the economy.
“What I can assure you is that we are on top of the situation and we are confident that the second half of the year will be better than the previous.
“Some of the things that impacted on this first two quarters were the acute fall in the price of crude oil,” he said.
Mohammed said that the development was not new to the government, adding that measures were being taken to reverse the trend.
“One thing we cannot take away from this government is that it is open, honest and will not keep Nigerians in the dark.
“About a month ago, the Minister of Finance actually told all of us that we are already technically in recession.
“Recession is not an event, it is a process. We knew more than five years ago that the country is heading towards recession because the structure of our economy is faulty.
“Faulty in the sense that for many years we have relied in one product, crude oil,” he said.
The minister said the crash in the cost of crude oil and the activities of militants in the Niger Delta region which brought down production were largely responsible for the situation.
He explained that “because of the crash in the cost of crude oil, we lost about 60 per cent of our earnings.
He said: “Crude oil that used to sell for about 100 dollars per barrel, today we are hovering between 40 and 45 dollars per barrel.
“The 2016 budget projected 2.2 million barrels per day at 38 dollars. But because of the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta region, we are down to 1.2 to 1.4 million per barrels a day.
“We have lost about one third of production capacity.
“Combine all these together we are heading for recession especially when there is no reserve to cushion the effects.”
Besides, the minister said the nation’s economy was driven by consumption and not by investment or production.
He therefore appealed to Nigerians to curb their appetite particularly for foreign goods and patronise made-in-Nigeria products.
He said that government on its part would continue to provide incentives to encourage manufacturers and ensure that the cost of doing business is competitive.
“Even in the face of the deficit, we made growth in agriculture which records 4.5 per cent growth and solid minerals which records 3.9 per cent growth.
“On the good side again is that we can see in agriculture that we have surplus in agriculture produce and what is of concern to us is how to mop up this.
“The report also indicates that in the area of investments, we are higher even than what it was in 2010,” he said.
The minister explained that the positive side of the report was an indication that the policies and programmes of the government on diversification of the economy were yielding fruits.
He assured that government would continue to encourage agriculture and ensure it purchased and stored the excess produce by farmers.
Mohammed said that the approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for extension of contract for e-wallet programme, would allow farmers easy access to fertilisers and seeds at subsidised rate.
He explained that inflation being experienced in the country is “cost pushed inflation” but not in a situation where too much money is chasing few goods.
“Cost pushed inflation usually occurs when the cost of doing business increases,” Mohammed said, adding “government is focused and working hard to reposition the economy better.”
