Prince Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has said that the much-celebrated economic stability under President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) is a ruse.
Reacting to the report that inflation has dropped to 20.7 per cent, which the government had been celebrating, Adebayo said it is actually a slap on Nigerians because all across Africa, the inflation rate does not exceed five per cent.
He cited countries like the Benin Republic with less than two per cent inflation figure, Senegal with less than three per cent, Tanzania at 3.3 per cent, as well as South Africa and Morocco with less than five per cent inflation figures respectively among other African countries, stressing that Nigeria needs to come down to about seven per cent before anybody can talk about economic recovery.
He said, “In a way, the economy, in terms of these numbers, is not worse now than it was last year. It’s slightly better but far, far away from where it ought to be.
“And if you look at the inflation numbers across some regions, for example, I don’t want to sound like I’m mentioning America, as they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s a different place,’ we are the fourth highest in inflation. Benin Republic, next to us, has inflation barely above one per cent.
“If you go around the ECOWAS countries, the countries that use CFA, the highest is Senegal because of its high borrowing.
“But all the countries around us are at two per cent and 2.7 per cent. Even Tanzania, whose economy is beginning to resemble ours in some ways, if you look at the exchange rate and other factors, Tanzania is barely 3.3 per cent in inflation.
“So, there is no major country, South Africa, our competitor, Morocco, none of them is up to five per cent in inflation.
“We are still at 20.7 per cent. So, we need to get as low as seven per cent before we start to look at recovery from the point of view of inflation. It’s a good number, a better number than before, but it’s not a number that’s going to take you to the Promised Land,”
He called on the Federal Government to focus more on the real economy by developing infrastructure and creating employment. He made reference to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report to drive home his point.
He said, “If you study the IMF reports, despite all the numbers they’re juggling, there’s a report where they concluded that Nigeria’s inflation has been driven by poor infrastructure.
“So, if we improve infrastructure, transport costs will be cheaper, which will impact food, productivity, and the disposable income left for people, and that will also cushion the effect of the poverty of wages we have in the country.
“So, the country needs to look at infrastructure and agriculture.” Why don’t we need to fear that it might rise?” he stated.
Responding to a recent comment by former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, that President Tinubu inherited a dead economy, he said: “I commend Dogara for speaking adequately for his party and his people, but I think we should be more realistic in terms of the real economy to grow employment, agriculture and infrastructure. That requires time and consistency.”
