The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the Federal government for ignoring the core message in recent comments by the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the state of the Nigerian economy, choosing instead to celebrate the headlines.
While acknowledging efforts by the Federal government to stabilise the economy, the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy challenged the Bola Tinubu administration to create social safety nets to mitigate the suffering being experienced by Nigerians at the receiving end of its policy reforms.
She said: “The President and his team have worked hard to stabilise the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support.”
She added that growth, job creation, and income expansion must go hand-in-hand with measures to cushion the impact of ongoing reforms on vulnerable Nigerians.
According to the party, government officials and their media surrogates have amplified only one soundbite from her remarks — where she credited the administration for “stabilising the economy” — while deliberately ignoring her more serious call for urgent measures to grow the economy and establish social safety nets for millions of Nigerian families suffering the negative impacts of the government’s reforms.
The ADC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, accused the Tinubu administration of seeking validation rather than focusing on the job at hand.
