HIGHLIGHT – Presidency
The Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said while former Central bank Governor, Charles Soludo was entitled to his own opinion, Nigerians were entitled to the facts.
Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande
This was a reply to statements credited to the Economics Professor that the Buhari government had worsened an already bad economy and would not be able to positively change it.
According to him, while the opinion expressed by Soludo is understandable in a democratic system, the facts are that the challenges of today are direct results of wrong decisions of the past and mind-boggling actions of those who were entrusted with leadership.
Akande stated, “Nigerians have demonstrated that they know that the Buhari administration inherited a sorry state of the economy but is working diligently to fix it with positive results now emerging.
“What even the former CBN Governor, Soludo, cannot deny is the fact that the Buhari administration has ended the bleeding of the nation and is implementing reforms.
“The Buhari administration is spending more on infrastructure at a time when resources are lean. When we had abundant revenues, what happened was profligate and plunder.
“What no one can deny is that the Buhari administration is now implementing on behalf of ordinary Nigerians a Social Investment Programme that is unprecedented in Nigeria’s history; paying poorest Nigerians N5,000 monthly; feeding school children and engaging hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates. And there is more to come.
“The Buhari administration is plugging loopholes in several ways, including through the Treasury Single Account, raking in resources that otherwise were hidden and misappropriated, and the proper auditing of the federal payroll discovering about 30,000 ghost workers and saving billions per month.”
He added, “Another step in the right direction is the fact that Nigeria no longer has to shell out billions of dollars for the JVC cash call, bringing relief from a burden that has slowed down investment in the oil industry.
“It is certainly quite curious that very few among us will choose to ignore the new direction but make story of the burdens of the past without proper attributions. This appears to me to be selective amnesia to which they are certainly entitled.
“What would have been more patriotic is that people of goodwill will join several others working with us in this administration and offer progressive ideas and join hands with a government and administration that everyone knows is led by a President and Vice President who are trustworthy and are people of unabashed honesty and integrity.”
