“Some People Are Out To Distract Buhari Govt Despite Improved Economy” – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture Thursday declared that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was making steady progress in “revamping the Nigerian economy, tackling insecurity and fighting corruption.”

He said since Buhari’s administration assumed power, foreign reserve has “now over $47bn, is the highest level in four years,” while “inflation has fallen for 18 consecutive months to about 13%,” with “108 billion Naira has been saved from removal of maintenance fees payable to banks before Treasury Single Account (TSA).”

Speaking at the annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, Mohammed said the “improved macro-economic indicators, capital inflow is on the rise, reaching $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017.”

He said the nation is being saved of “24.7 billion Naira monthly with the full implementation of the TSA and the elimination of ghost workers has saved the nation 120 billion Naira.”

The Minister lamented that despite the “giant strides recorded by this administration” some “naysayers” have remained unrelenting at distracting and misleading the current administration.

He insisted that Buhari administration should be evaluated against the “background of the tough challenges” it faced since assumption of office in 2015.

According to Mohammed, “Despite the verifiable and giant strides recorded by this administration, the naysayers have remained unrelenting in their efforts at distracting the government and misleading the people into believing that the government has achieved nothing.

“Some commentators in the Social Media have now made it their full time job to twist the remarks and comments made by public officials in order to malign those officials or cast aspersions on them. We are not unaware that this hatchet job has scaled up in view of the forthcoming general elections.

“Let me say that contrary to the fake news being circulated on the Social Media, Nigeria is in safe hands and making steady progress, especially in revamping the economy, tackling insecurity and fighting corruption – the three cardinal programmes of the Buhari Administration

“This Administration’s achievements should be evaluated against the background of the tough challenges that it has faced since coming into office on 29 May 2015.

“When the Administration came into office, there was a backlog of pensions, which ran into billions of Naira in many states, contractors had abandoned sites across the country because they were being heavily owed, there was a dearth of infrastructure, power generation was 2,690 Megawatts, it was to the knowledge of Nigerians that illegal money running into Billions were being paid as ‘fuel subsidies’.

“No doubt, the general insecurity being experienced in many parts of the country then negatively impacted on the socio-economic activities of our people especially in the North-East.

“Today, this ugly trend is being reversed, and the results are showing:
Foreign reserves is now over $47b, the highest level in four years, inflation has fallen for 18 consecutive months to about 13%, 108 billion Naira has been saved from removal of maintenance fees payable to banks before Treasury Single Account (TSA), the nation is being saved 24.7 billion Naira monthly with the full implementation of the TSA and the elimination of ghost workers has saved the nation 120 billion Naira.

“With improved macro-economic indicators, capital inflow is on the rise, reaching $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017, which is almost double the figure of $908 million in the first quarter of the same period, Nigeria’s stock market is one of the best-performing in the world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.

“Nigeria jumped 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, and earned a place on the List of Top 10 Reformers in the world.

“The Administration’s Agricultural Revolution is a huge success, with agriculture export up year-on-year by 25%, rice import from Thailand dropping 644,000 Metric Tonnes to 22,000MT and rice farmers growing from 5 million to 12.3 million.”

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