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Minister warns against politicising Nigeria’s exit from recession

By Editor
09 September 2017   |   3:11 am
The minister, who stated this when he received the Broadcast Media Editors (BME) on a courtesy visit in Abuja, yesterday, said politicising Nigeria’s exit from recession is a disservice to the people of Nigeria.

Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has warned against the politicisation of the country’s recent emergence from recession.
The minister, who stated this when he received the Broadcast Media Editors (BME) on a courtesy visit in Abuja, yesterday, said politicising Nigeria’s exit from recession is a disservice to the people of Nigeria.

A statement by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi, quoted him as saying: “”To naysayers, I will say: This issue should not be politicised. An issue that affects the welfare of our citizens should not be toyed with. Let us all appreciate what this administration has done in returning our economy to the path of positive growth and then support and encourage it to do more.

‘’Trying to downplay what has been achieved is bad politics. I know this good news of our emergence from recession has hit the naysayers very hard, but they should recover quickly and embrace the good news. Sorry, but it can neither be denied nor wished away.”

Mohammed said some critics even claimed that getting out of recession is mere statistics and does not mean anything, even though it is the same statistics that was used to say that Nigeria had slipped into recession in the second quarter of last year.

He said now that the country has emerged from recession, the administration would sustain and build on what it did to get the economy out of recession through sustained policy interventions in various sectors.

He said the government would also continue the efforts to ensure that inflation rate, which has come down from 18 to 16 per cent, is further brought down; continue to build up the foreign reserves, which has hit a 30-month high of $31.8 billion as at July this year and ensure the sustenance of the Social Intervention Programme, among others.

He assured that government would continue to improve on power generation, which has increased from 2,690MW to over 6,000MW.Earlier, Convener of the BME, Mr. Tijjani Yunusa, pledged the partnership of the group with the Federal Government in its effort to develop the country.

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