Posted on: 06:34 Tue, 15 Dec 2015



The present decline in Nigeria’s
economy and the continuous fall of the
naira against the dollar has caused for
several stakeholders to cry out and
complain about the state of things.

Minister of Information Lai
Mohammed however thinks the
blame should be faced towards the
immediate past administration. He
said that the Jonathan
administration plundered National
wealth and turned the CBN into their
piggy banks.

He said if the party had won the
Presidential election, Nigerians
economy would not have survived
one more month …

“Some people still have the temerity
to insult a government that is
working hard to turn things around
for the citizens, who are bearing the
brunt of such mismanagement. It is
now clear to all Nigerians that if the
PDP had won the last general
elections, Nigeria’s economy would
not have survived one more month,
considering the battering it received
under the immediate past
Administration. It is therefore
unconscionable that those who
should show contrition and humility
to avoid public disgrace are the same
ones pointing accusing fingers at the
Buhari Administration.”he said
Lai Mohammed described the
comments credited to the Deputy
Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu
which stated that ‘businesses may
collapse in the next six months
because the Buhari Administration
has mismanaged the economy’ as the
clearest indication that the PDP and
its leaders are still in denial of the
massive destruction they inflicted on
the Nigerian economy. According to
him, Ike Ekweremadu (Senator)
complained about the depreciation of
the naira without telling Nigerians,
who ‘dollarized’ the Nigerian
economy by bribing many
individuals and groups with dollars
during the last elections, thereby
causing a downward drift on the
local currency.

Lai added that the Senate deputy
President failed to tell Nigerians
which government presided over the
frenzied mop-up of dollars, either
for ‘arms – gate’ or for slush fund
purposes from the CBN to a point
where it almost ran out of the hard
currency.

He said that though the Buhari
Administration met an economy that
was in coma, it has refused to use
that as an excuse for inaction, hence
has been working hard on measures
that will turn the economy around
and greatly offer relief to Nigerians
by lifting millions, not thousands of
people out of poverty through a
massive social intervention policy.

He further noted that the outcome of
the months of hard work will
manifest soon in the 2016 national
budget that will give succor to
millions of Nigerians, who are
reeling from the fallout of the
mistake of the immediate past
Administration which has turned the
country into a cash market.

He advised the leaders of PDP and
members of the immediate past
Administration, who are involved in
the emerging cases of looting spree
to urgently return to government
coffers, the funds they have taken
from the treasury.

”They are lucky that Nigerians are
not as reckless as they are, otherwise
they would not be able to walk
around freely; not even to have the
confidence challenge the
Government which inherited their
rot or the citizens suffering the
consequences. They looted the
billions of naira that were allocated
for the fight against insurgency,
causing many innocent and patriotic
soldiers to die needlessly. Yet, they
are not remorseful. They looted the
treasury to influence the last
elections, doling out money as if it
was going out of fashion, yet they
have continued in brag. In the latest
revelation, a Minister under the
immediate past dispensation
admitted to sharing 600 million
naira to six Chairmen of the Contact
and Mobilization Committee of the
PDP for the last general elections,
300 million naira to an account
given by a former PDP Chairman,
200 million naira to a PDP
governorship candidate and 100
million naira to a former PDP
Governor. This is just one case out of
many, yet these revelations are but a
tip of the iceberg of what Nigerians
will hear in the days ahead.” he
added.