The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Friday urged the Nigerian Government and the All Progressives Congress to pay attention to what the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is not saying.
In a statement issued by its interim national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said Okonjo-Iweala’s remark about Nigeria’s economy under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu is about Nigerians who are currently facing untold hardship and not about the perceived stability of the nation’s economy
Abdullahi chided the fovenemnet ignoring the message by the WTO DG while for using on the state of the economy doe which she praised the president.
Recall that Okonjo-Iweala had visited President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock on Thursday.
Shortly after her visit, Okonjo-Iweala who spoke to journalists said the economy under the current administration is doing well.
Since her visit, the APC and the Federal Government have continued to rely on Okonjo-Iweala’s remarks to boast about the efforts of the Tinubu administration.
However, in its statement, the ADC said F officials and their media surrogates have amplified only one soundbite from Okonjo-Iweala’s remarks praising the economy.
Abdullahi said the government deliberately ignored more serious calls by the WTO DG for urgent measures to grow the economy and establish social safety nets for millions of Nigerian families suffering the negative impacts of the government’s reforms.
His words, “Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s recent comments on President Tinubu and the Nigerian economy have been seized upon by government officials and their media allies as if their scandalous implementation of hard reforms, which have condemned the majority of Nigerians to absolute poverty and destroyed millions of jobs, had received endorsement by the oracle herself. This is not correct.
“Dr. Okonjo-Iweala knows that a stable economy is one that is growing in real terms, led by jobs and productivity. She knows that a stable economy is one that is able to guarantee minimum standards of living for the people. She knows that economic stability that leaves the majority in grinding poverty is meaningless.
“Therefore, what she’s really saying — which the government has chosen to ignore — is that the economy is not growing, jobs are not being created, and too many people are suffering as a direct consequence of President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and badly implemented reforms. These are the issues she wanted the government to address,” Abdullahi said.