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Enioluwa Adeniyi
Guest
The Federal Government on Wednesday met with the leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, during the meeting took the opportunity to reel out some of the economic trajectories and efforts to get the country out of the woods.
He reassured that the worst was over.
He reacted to the recent World Bank’s claim at the National Economic Summit Group forum in Abuja, that most of the oil wealth goes into feeding the lifestyle of the elite.
Bagudu’s said during the parley with labour at the SGF office, “When the National Economic Summit Group finished a three-day interactive session and the Corporate Nigeria Civil Society Organisation Development Partners where Tinubu was represented by His Excellency, the Vice President.
“The consensus of the three-day summit was that, tough as they might be, our president led us to take decisions that we needed to have taken.
“Of course, tough decisions might come with some challenges and consequences, we are dealing with them, which is part of what we are asking. Why is there a spike in inflation for September 2 percentage point, following the decline we talked about? But because of the energy prices that were yet to stabilise it affected oil prices.
“But beyond that, just borrowing from, again, what has been said at the consensus, is when you are undertaking reform, is to stay the course. And the benefits will follow. We are in the tick of a harvest season.
“We believe that that will further impact on food prices. Most of the measures that have been taken are beginning to yield to greater levels of investment and effort to mobilise more investment, which we believe will cement the rise in gross domestic product. Our gross domestic product for the first quarter increased by over 2%, close to 3%.
“In the second quarter, it went by 3.19%. Some people will say, it sounds too slow. But let me give you how big that number is. Germany, which is wealthier than us, which have more resources to respond to any challenge, has declined by 0.3%. UK is struggling at minus 0.2%. Why is all this happening? Why are we not growing fast enough? Because that’s what we need.
“We need to grow fast enough at a higher rate. That is why we are taking all the fearful measures, so that we put Nigeria on a sustainable, inclusive, higher rate of growth. That will make all of you, our younger ones, be very proud of the country that God has blessed us with. In doing so, we might experience occasional hiccups.
“I want to ask you, now, going forward, now, what is the message, particular message that you have for Nigeria’s youths, with regard to the period of time, three months, time, six months? We believe we have stopped the decline. We are not where we want to be. Look, our president’s message in the Refueled Hope agenda is, let us confront our reality.
“Let us tell ourselves that we are not as rich as we thought we are, so that everyone can mobilise, whether it is at the family level or at the national level. Frank discussion can help mobilise everyone to a greater action. So that’s what we are doing.
“No blame game. If we spend all the time discussing what went wrong, who did what wrong, maybe we may not agree. But the fact that we are not where we want to be is enough cause for action.
“So what are those choices we need to take? We took the bold choices. Today, state governments, local governments, and Federal Government are better funded. Of course, inflation is there, cost of living challenges.”
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