FG blasts Atiku over comments on ‘bleak’ economy

The federal government has said Atiku Abubakar’s assertion that the country’s economic future is “bleak” is scaremongering.

Atiku, the presidential candidate for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the upcoming general elections in 2023, made the declaration when he recently presented his Economic Blueprint to Nigerians.

However, despite Nigeria’s economic difficulties, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, stated that there was optimism for the country’s future at a media conference Thursday in Abuja.

“The country’s economic outlook is not bleak. Instead, the economy has been resilient, having recovered from two recessions within five years, 2016 and 2020.

“The Nigerian economy sustained its recovery from the 2020 recession for the 7th consecutive quarter, growing by 3.54 per cent in real terms in Q2 2022, from 3.11 per cent in Q1 2022.

“Many sectors recorded positive economic growth reflecting the effective implementation of policy measures prescribed in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), Annual Budgets, Finance Acts and National Development Plan (NDP),’’ he stated.

The minister also faulted Atiku’s position that Nigeria under the APC-led government has consistently run on budget deficits for some time.

APC came to power in 2015 and the ‘budget deficits are often above the three per cent threshold permissible under the Fiscal Responsibility Law.’

“This is a misrepresentation of facts. The truth is that Nigeria has been running on budget deficits since 2009 (not since 2015), even when oil prices were more than US$100 per barrel,” he said. (Ripples Nigeria)