Nigeria as largest economy, a joke taken too far – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as ‘an orchestrated distraction and a mindless public relations gimmick” the ongoing rebasing of the country’s GDP which the government said had seen the country emerging as the largest economy in Africa.
The party described it as “a joke taken too far” by the federal government by giving the impression that the emergence of the nation’s economy, as the largest in Africa, “is a function of the economic policies under President Goodluck Jonathan.”

A statement issued yesterday in Washington DC, US, by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said “coming after the damning World Bank report which declared Nigeria as one of the countries harbouring the largest population of poor people in the world, there is no doubt that the rebasing noise is the government’s response to the classification.”
The statement said: “However, the federal government has only succeeded in opening itself to ridicule. This is because if ever there was a clear play at oxymoron, this is it: The largest economy with the largest population of the poor, the largest economy with the largest population of unemployed, the largest economy with the largest population of citizens living in darkness, and the largest economy with the worst infrastructure.

“Simply put, there is too much poverty in the midst of plenty, and the so-called economic growth which the FG has been trumpeting with its dubious statistics is not a result of any deliberate government policies. Policies of government are expected to result in reduction in unemployment, increase in capacity utilisation by manufacturers, increased access to basic needs of life (food, water, electricity, health care, education, healthy environment, etc), increase in transparency and accountability, etc. On the contrary, the country continues to slip down the ladder on all of these fronts.”