By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it warned President Goodluck Jonathan and all the handlers of Nigeria’s economy on what it called “calamitous economic policies” that led to the devaluation of currencies in the country, adding that people can now see clearly reasons for raising alarms.
The party was reacting to devaluation of the naira which strengthened the dollar at N168 again the naira, announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In an interview yesterday at the APC national secretariat, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he issued a press statement two years ago to warn the government against the introduction of the cracking technology.
“We have always warned about the calamitous economic policies of this government. I don’t know if you remember about two years ago we issued a statement saying that with the introduction of the cracking technology that Shale oil and gas discovery, which have remained largely untapped in the US, that it was going threaten our oil and gas market.
“We went further to warn government that cost of production of oil in Nigeria was the highest. We raised alarm also at the organised theft of crude oil. We were called alarmists. We went further to advise the government to diversify our economy; we advised government to spend more of our resources in finding new reserve and we gave example that while Angola and Brazil have reinvested in new deposits to about 40 per cent, that only Nigeria had only invested about two per cent.”
Mohammed, who said when the currency was devalued, “it is the worst thing that can happen to any nation,” adding, “All it means for a country like ours which is import-dependent, you will need more naira to buy raw materials, more naira to buy machines.
“It also means that very soon cost of living would go up. But this to me should not have surprised anybody.”
The spokesman said the amount of money that had been declared missing in the economy, “even if you agree that it is only $12 billion and you don’t even take Sanusi’s $20 billion, if you add $12 billion to our reserve today you know what the reserve is going to be. We have the pension scam.”
He said: “Once you have corruption, it is going to affect your economy. Every Nigerian has now seen what we have been talking about, but believe me we are not just being harsh on this government but as long as this government continues with no fresh ideas the economy can only get worse.”
