Buhari Contradicts Self, Says Nigeria’s Economic Performance Gives Him Comfort

Two weeks after expressing disappointment on the performance of the economy, President Muhammdu has made a U-turn and said that the performance of the economy gives him comfort.

He made the statement during the inauguration of the National Steering Committee of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo emerged as the Chairman of the Committee.

He said, “The Performance of our economy despite COVID-19 gives me comfort that we can achieve our goal, but we need to seriously scale up and work more with states and local governments.”

Meanwhile during an interview on the Nigerian Televisions Authority at the eve of June 12 Democracy Day, Buhari admitted that he was not satisfied with the performance of the economy.

When asked by the interviewer if he was satisfied with the economy, he said, “No I’m not satisfied with performance of the economy.

“I will persuade the foreign countries to allow their multinational to develop more confidence in Nigeria and come and invest. This will help us create more employment.”

As of 2014, the Nigerian economy was growing at 6.5 per cent until the 2016 economic recession.

The Covid-19 pandemic dragged the economy to a second recession leading to 2.3 per cent contraction in 2020.

The economy grew at 0.51 per cent in Q1 2021.

Driven by food prices, by May 2021 inflation was up by 17.93 per cent. Food inflation, at 22.23 per cent, despite a N1.5tn intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria in the agriculture sector.

Unemployment rate is also at 33.3 per cent which is about 23 million people who are unemployed.

Over 7 million Nigerian were forced into poverty by the surging inflation between 2020 to date, according to World Bank recent report.