Recession exit claim unverifiable, doesn’t call for celebration, ADP, SDP react 

The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has described as a political statement an official statement by the federal government that the country is now out of recession, saying such claim “too bogus without fact and data.”

Also reacting to the development, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said the claim does not call for celebration yet.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in a report released on Tuesday, had said the country exited its worst economic recession in more than two decades, notching up growth of 0.55 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.

The data showed that the economic recovery was driven by improved performance of oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade sectors of the economy.

But reacting in a telephone interview with Blueprint Wednesday, National Chairman of ADP Engr. Yabagi Yusuf, one of the opposition political parties, said such claim “is bogus because there are no facts behind the figure to support it.

“Normally if Nigeria is out of recession you will have seen it in the numbers of industry that have resume work, numbers of unemployed Nigerians who probably would have been employed or recall to their jobs, you would have seen more economic activities because the GDP is based on the increase in the productivity of economy.

“So it has to be something that people should see and when you look at the real sector of economy, you can go and ask them, they are still suffering all the ills of deprivations that they have been suffering. It is not that the price of raw materials have come down or so. I don’t know where they got their data from, it is a bogus claim but they can bring out the facts.

When asked on what he expected the government to do urgently in addressing current hardship confronting Nigerians, the ADP National Chairman said: “what they should do first of all is to become more organised. They are not organised as they are now and there is no government that can perform even in your house if you are not organised nothing will happen, the whole thing will be in disarray.

“So the government has to be organised first, there has to be government because there is no government today. Yes, Nigeria is endowed with a lot of potentials in both natural resources and human capital, we are not wanting in all these things that should make Nigeria a great country but what is lacking is managerial ability,” he said.

He, however, called on Nigerians to vote his party into power, saying “because we are organised, we know what we want to achieve for this country.

Simply, you don’t fight corruption by going after individual but rather look at the system itself and reform the system but when you concentrate your energy in chasing shadow of course what do you get? So, Nigeria economy is in retrogression and nobody should deceive us, when you deceive yourself is then that you fail because if you are truthful you will be able to address the core issues and seriously attack them but when you build castle in the air then you are just wasting your time and then probably taking people for a ride. I am sure the economy will come out with facts and data but not this political data.”

Also reacting on behalf of the Party, SDP’s  National Publicity Secretary. Alfa Mohammed said “we have as a matter of fact taken notice of the  appreciable growth in the country’s GDP as indicated by the report from the Bureau of Statistics. However we are of the view that it is not celebration time yet, as the interest rate is still high while the 16.25% inflation rate reported in the month of May is still not a good indicator.

“We, however agree that if the growth in the non oil sectors are improved upon and capital spending is increased through effective budget implementation, then we can begin to have a sigh of relief.

“Finally, there is the need to see the achievements reflected in the welfare of the common man on the streets particularly the unpaid Civil Servants, Pensioners and the Students who are currently out of the classes.”

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