Date Published: 11/25/10

State of the economy: Atiku lied – Jonathan

Abuja- The Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation has taken a swipe at the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan was mismanaging the nation’s economy and described him as a mischief maker.

Speaking through the Director General, Research and Strategy, Mike Omeri, the campaign organisation noted with dismay that Atiku displayed stark ignorance on the performance of the economy stressing that even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledged the upward movement of our economy and has rated the nation’s economy as buoyant.

“We maintained that Nigeria’s external debt at the point of exit in 2005 was $3.5 billion dollars and only rose to $4.5 billion dollars in 2010. Only this month, the IMF confirmed that the economy of sub-Saharan African will be among the best performing in the world this year and next, lagging only behind those in emerging Asia. IMF also raised its growth forecast for Nigeria’s economy to 7.4 percent in both 2010 and 2011 from 7 percent and 7.3 percent respectively.

“At the moment, the nation’s public debt to Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is 11.8 percent, a country like the United Kingdom (UK) public debt to GDP is 68.20 percent, the United State of America (USA) public debt to GDP is 53.50 percent while Brazil public debt to GDP is 59.50 percent for the 2009 estimate”.

According to Omeri, President Jonathan led administration is running an excellent economy, citing the international global rating as basis for faulting the position of the former vice president.

“In fact, we are the third fastest growing economy in the world today by IMF and World Bank. Anybody can go the internet and download this information. Our economy rating since Obasanjo administration till date has remained B.B rating. We have not been downgraded. With all the respect, Atiku displayed emptiness and ignorance commenting on our economy, and such a man should not dream or contemplate managing an economy he knows next to nothing about.

Omeri accused Alhaji Atiku of mortgaging the Nigerian economy when he held sway as Vice President between 1999 to 2007.

“We are all witnesses to the kind of economy Atiku ran as Vice President when he mortgaged our common heritage to himself and his cronies. Atiku is the least person to talk about economy he ran aground. He lacked the moral standing and should be schooled on basic economies.

“Atiku who ordinarily should be behind bars for bringing the nation’s economy to its knees when he supervised the selling of our collective wealth in the guise of privatisation would have the temerity to speak ill of a hard working President like Goodluck Jonathan.

“It is a statement of fact that while former President Olusegun Obasanjo was working hard to save Nigeria from her pariah status, Atiku was busy lining his pockets. President Jonathan is only working hard to clean the mess of corruption bequeathed by Atiku.

The organisation urged Nigerians to disregard the rantings of Atiku “because people know that our economy is in good stead and President Jonathan is managing it prudently”.

They advised Atiku to focus his campaign on issues instead of engaging in mudslinging.

“We make bold to counsel Atiku to focus on issues as they would improve the lot of Nigerians and not resort to mudslinging. Those who resort to mudslinging are just empty barrels. It shows that they have nothing to offer.

“President Jonathan offers a breath of fresh air and a new dawn which will ultimately transform Nigeria, a true break for the past. In the global world which Nigeria unarguably belongs, she certainly does not need and will not need a regional President but a nationalist who has a mission and purpose to transform the country.

‘Those who are rejoicing on account of a cooked up consensus should be bold and honest enough to throw in towel and tell Nigerians that they have nothing to offer except raking up sentiments and mundane issues that have been the bane of our development. We are happy to note that Nigerians are now wiser and they can spot the difference, he said.