The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has told the federal government that the recent comments by the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the state of the Nigerian economy and not meaningless stability.
The opposition party berated the federal government for ignoring the real message in the recent comments by choosing instead to celebrate the headlines.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi in a statement issued Friday said government officials and their media surrogates have amplified only one soundbite from her remarks, where she credited the administration for “stabilising the economy,” while deliberately ignoring her more serious call 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.
He noted: “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.”