GDP rebasing a distraction, says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as hype the rebasing of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) saying it is an orchestrated distraction and a public relations gimmick.

In a statement issued yesterday by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said coming after the damning World Bank report which declared

Nigeria as one of the countries harbouring the largest population of poor people in the world, there is no doubt that the rebasing is the government’s response to the report.
“However, the federal government has only succeeded in opening itself to ridicule. This is because if ever there was a clear play at oxymoron, this is it: The largest economy with the largest population of the poor, the largest economy with the largest population of unemployed, the largest economy with the largest population of citizens living in darkness, and the largest economy with the worst infrastructure.
“Simply put, there is too much poverty in the midst of plenty, and the so-called economic growth which the FG has been trumpeting with its dubious statistics is not a result of any deliberate government policies. Policies of government are expected to result in reduction in unemployment, increase in capacity utilization by manufacturers, increased access to basic needs of life (food, water, electricity, health care, education, healthy environment, etc), increase in transparency and accountability, etc. On the contrary, the country continues to slip down the ladder on all of these fronts,’’ it said.
APC said the federal government carried its joke too far by giving the impression that the emergence of the Nigerian economy as the largest in Africa is a function of the economic policies under President Goodluck Jonathan, “rather than a rejigging of figures to fool an unsuspecting public.”
It said fortunately, no one has been fooled by the government, even though it has succeeded in diverting attention from the “worsening insecurity in the land, the hopeless power situation that has seen Nigerians publicly protesting being thrown into perpetual darkness, the rising unemployment, especially among our youth and an unprecedented massive frittering away and looting of the commonwealth and the absence of good governance”.
The APC said “President Jonathan and his shadow-chasing economic team should therefore quit wallowing in unnecessary chest-beating over the rejigging of figures and the play on statistics and put their shoulders to the wheel to push our nation forward. If they cannot, they should get out of the way and allow those who are capable to do so.’’