Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has clarified that his<\/p>\n
comment on the economic situation being out of the control of President
\nMuhammadu Buhari was misrepresented.<\/p>\n
He was reacting to a story in THISDAYLIVE of this Saturday, March 12th
\n2016 entitled \u201dEconomy Gone Out of Buhari\u2019s Control, Says Lai Mohammed\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was contained in a statement by Mr. Segun Adeyemi, Mohammed\u2019s Special
\nAssistant (SA) on Information and Culture.<\/p>\n
Although he described the report as a \u201ccomplete misrepresentation of the
\ncomments\u201d made by the minister, with Lai Mohammed denying making them, a
\nplayback of the recorded interview shows Mohammed said the situation was
\nbeyond the government\u2019s control \u2013 considering the various forces at play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is pertinent to state that at no time during the entire two-hour
\n(radio) programme did the Honourable Minister say or suggest that the
\neconomy has gone out of the President\u2019s control,\u201d the SA\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonourable Minister\u2019s comments on the economy during the programme goes
\nthus: \u201dAgain, we have not been very fortunate with our economy in the
\nsense that we came in at a time when there is global collapse in the
\nprices of commodities ranging from oil.<\/p>\n
\u201dUnfortunately for us, we have inherited an economy where the mainstay of
\nthe economy, crude oil, crashed from an all high of $100 to about $30 and
\nthat of course means that automatically the source of our foreign exchange
\nwas affected. 80 percent of our foreign
\nexchange used to come from crude. Today we have lost 70 percent of that
\namount so that is the major reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile indeed this Administration inherited a disastrous economy, it has
\ndecided to turn the disaster into blessing by diversifying the economy
\naway from oil, thus widening its base and weaning the country of its
\naddiction to oil.<\/p>\n
However, the relevant portion of the statement from where our story
\nderived is somewhat different. Below is the excerpt beginning with the
\nquestion by the interviewer.<\/p>\n
Q: The free fall of the Naira in the last three weeks has been very
\ndiscomforting and a lot of people are asking a lot of questions and some
\npeople even say wow, it has never been so bad. Has government been able to
\ndiscover (the source of) this untoward development?<\/p>\n
Lai Mohammed: I think it is clear why the naira is today in a free fall.
\nYou see, what are the factors that determines the exchange of the naira?
\nIt is your export and import; your trade balance and the general economy.
\nUnfortunately we have not been fortunate in any of these, which is about
\n70 percent of all our total earnings. Before now, oil was selling for
\nabout N100 per barrel; today it is about N30 per barrel. And if you look
\nat the cost of production, it has remained about the same.<\/p>\n
We have lost about 70 percent of all our income and not only was oil
\nresponsible for all our income, it was also responsible for about 90
\npercent of all our foreign exchange, which makes between 90 -80 percent of
\nour source of foreign exchange.<\/p>\n
And naturally there will be more pressure on the Naira and less dollars
\nand more naira chasing the dollars and now look at the balance of trade \u2013
\nit is negative. What do we do with trading and how much did we buy from
\nBritain, for instance, and how they buy from us,. Unfortunately, it is
\nnegative. We take more from them than they take from us. If a country
\nsuddenly loses about 80 percent for its source of forex, clearly that
\ncurrency will be in trouble.<\/p>\n
The only way out is what the government is doing, which is strengthening
\nthe economy, diversifying it, plugging all the loopholes and making sure
\nthat only the essential things are imported. It will be extremely
\ndifficult, no doubt, but we are also in a state of emergency economically.
\nYou see, take for instance, your earnings reduced from N100 to N30 per
\nmonth, something will have to give way\u2026like relocating to a smaller house
\nand I mean this is a reality.<\/p>\n
The fact that the government is even still managing this situation, I give
\ncredit to the government, because the situation is completely beyond their
\ncontrol, and this is where people have been mischievous\u2026<\/p>\n
Today we live in a global community, Nigeria cannot determine the price of
\noil or gas. And that is why the presiident has gone spending countless
\nnights lobbying, rallying other oil-exporting countries on how do we
\nstabilize the oil price\u2026.<\/p>\n
The programme was aired on FRCN\u2019s Radio Link<\/p>\n
ThisDay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has clarified that his comment on the economic situation being out of the control of President Muhammadu Buhari was misrepresented. He was reacting to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n