Osinbajo blames Niger Delta militants for recession …Buhari responsible for economic woes – Fayose insists

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday blamed the current economic recession in the country on the militancy in the Niger Delta region.

The Niger Delta Avengers and other militants have been bombing oil and power installations in the region.

Speaking at the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum at the State House, Abuja, Osinbajo said the bombings had more adverse impact on the 2016 Budget and the economy than the low prices of oil in the international market.

According to him, the 2016 Budget had properly anticipated the low oil price, but didn't expect the drop in oil production caused by the bombings.

He said Nigeria, whose budgetary expenditure was predicated on a daily crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels per daily, was producing less than 1.1 million barrels per day owing to the nefarious activities of the militants.

He said: 'Perhaps it is important for us to understand the nature of this recession in which we have found ourselves. In discussing this issue of recession there is tendency for people to generalize. A lot depends on what sort of recession and how we got here.

'If we did not have vandalisation in the Niger Delta as we are currently suffering, we will not have this recession today. Moreover in looking at the solutions, we should try to focus on the type of problem we have and what instigated it. Then we can begin to come up with better solutions.'

But rather than analyzing how Nigeria came about the problems, he noted that some Nigerians were busy criticizing the Federal Government.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose said yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari is responsible for the country's economic recession.

Fayose added that President Buhari is the major problem of the country that Nigerians must solve.

'Our president, through his actions and inactions is destroying everything that makes Nigeria a country and well-meaning Nigerians must stand-up to be counted in the crusade to save the country from going under.'

The governor alleged that president Buhari went to foreign countries to de-market Nigeria by calling all Nigerians thieves and dishonest people.

'Which foreign investor will put money in a country of dishonest people? Who made investors to leave Nigeria if not president Buhari?

'Who created (an) atmosphere of economic and political instability in the country by his acts of nepotism and vindictiveness?'

The governor lamented that 'president Buhari has not only taken Nigeria to economic recession, he has also moved the country to economic depression and nepotism has prevented him from engaging even the best hands in his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).'

In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said president Buhari should realise that 'Nigerians will not measure his government on the basis of what his predecessors failed to do, but, on what he does or neglected to do between May 29, 2016 and May 29, 2019.'

He said with the level of hunger in the country, Buhari should rather get serious and be innovative with governance and stop his blame game.

'No nation has ever attained greatness by its leaders engaging in blame game, nepotism and vengeance as being done by President Buhari and his APC government,' Fayose noted.

The governor added that 'Nigerians must begin to speak out now before the country is totally destroyed by this one-man government which does not welcome any idea coming from those perceived as opposed to his government.

'As I said earlier, the main issue confronting Nigerians now is hunger and it does not speak the language of politics.

'It is, therefore, no longer about politics; it is about preventing hunger from killing Nigerians.'

Fayose, who said the Federal Government should stop deceiving Nigerians with stories of injecting funds into the economy, added that the economic problems facing the country have gone beyond talks of injecting N350 billion into the economy through execution of capital projects.

'Even if they inject N500 billion into the economy by paying contractors for capital projects, how does that affect the price of rice and other food items?

'How does it affect the price of basic drugs?
'Instead of unsustainable measures, what president Buhari should do is to bring economic experts in the country together, not minding their political and ethnic affiliations, so they can proffer lasting solutions to the country's economic problems.'