Buhari Has No Economic Policy – Mohammed

LAGOS — SOME eminent Nigerians and employers of labour, yesterday, disagreed with Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed over President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policy. While the Information Minister said, yesterday, that President Buhari’s administration was on the right track and that there was no alternative to what it was doing economically, some eminent Nigerians disagreed, insisting that the economy could be run better.

Speaking at a meeting with members of staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Madrid, Spain, during his two-day official visit to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO, according to NAN, Mohammed said: “I believe that we are on the right track, there will be some pains, but there is no alternative to what we are doing.” He claimed that the administration had fulfilled its campaign promises to address insecurity, fix the economy and fight corruption.

In the area of security, Mohammed said when President Buhari came on board, 14 of the 20 local government areas of Borno State, four in Adamawa and three in Yobe were under the sovereign authority of Boko Haram. He said the proactive measures and soft diplomacy with neighbouring African countries, the U.S., France and the G-8 had helped the country to “decisively deal with Boko Haram.”

“Today, all the major highways leading to Maiduguri are open and about two months ago, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, played a league match in Maiduguri stadium,” he said. On the renewed agitations in the Niger-Delta and parts of the South-East, the minister reassured that the government would not marginalise any part of the country and assured that economic development would go round to everyone. He stressed that no amount of economic reforms put in place could work unless the monster of corruption was successfully dealt with. Mohammed said the administration’s fight against corruption was not selective, and that the government was not probing the 2015 elections campaign funds of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The minister’s take on the economic strides of the government elicited sharp response from Second Republic politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu; Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed; the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA; and National President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima