The Federal Government on Wednesday replied to an elder
statesman, Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Lai
Mohammed, gave the response in a seven-page statement. He thanked the
ex-president for his letter.
FULL STATEMENT:
We have read the press statement by former President Olusegun
Obasanjo on the State of the Nation.
For the record, Chief Obasanjo is a patriot, and he has
proven this time and time again. We appreciate what he said concerning the
Administration’s performance in two out of the three key issues that formed the
plank of its campaign: Fighting corruption and tackling
insurgency. Specifically, the former President said President Buhari must be given credit for his achievement so far in these two areas. We
thank him for this.
insurgency. Specifically, the former President said President Buhari must be given credit for his achievement so far in these two areas. We
thank him for this.
Apparently, the former President believes that the
Administration does not deserve a pass mark in the area of the economy, which
is the third of our three-pronged campaign promises.
We have no doubt that in the face of massive challenges in
this area, this Administration has availed itself creditably. We believe that
Chief Obasanjo, because of his very busy schedule, may not have been fully
availed of developments in the government’s efforts to revamp the economy,
which was battered by the consequences of over-dependence on a commodity as
well as unprecedented pillaging of the treasury.
Today, most of the indices by which an economy is measured
are looking up. Permit me to say, however, that Nigeria would not have exited
recession through a mere order or if the Administration had not made use of ” good
Nigerians” who could help.
This Administration is making steady progress in its
determined effort to revamp the economy, and the results are showing:
* Foreign Reserves have peaked at $40b, the highest level in
about four years, and up from $24 billion just a year ago, even though when we
came in, the price of oil had crashed woefully.
* According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBC), headline
inflation has fallen for 11 consecutive months, standing at 15.37% as at Dec.
2017. This is the lowest inflation rate since Jan 2017, and it has met and
surpassed the target set for inflation in the Administration’s Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
* Our determined implementation of the Treasury Single
Account (TSA) has stopped the haemorrhaging of the treasury. Some 108 billion
Naira has been saved from removal of maintenance fees payable to banks,
pre-TSA. The nation is being saved 24.7 billion Naira monthly with the full
implementation of the TSA.
* The elimination of ghost workers has saved the nation 120
billion Naira
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