The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has described recent comments by the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, on using money to drive economic productivity as not only simplistic but also hollow.

The policy group noted that Mr Obi’s position which he canvassed in a recent TV interview shows a pedestrian understanding of the national economy.

In a policy statement signed by its Chairman Dr Niyi Akinsiju, IMPI argued that economic productivity is not a standalone item that could be automatically fixed with a single-dose action.

It said: “We do not begrudge Mr Obi accusing the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being ineffective in implementing economic policies but we consider his proposition of injecting money into productivity as the singular solution to Nigeria’s economic malaise in the first two years of this administration, if he were to be the President, as manipulative and borne of a deficient understanding of historical issues that underline Nigeria’s economic trajectory.

“He claims his silver bullet proposition would lead to a more productive and sustainable economy.

Coming from a former governor and one who had chaired the board of a commercial bank, we found this sub mission puzzling and, at the same time, vexatiously narrow.

“The fact is that productivity is not a stand-alone item in the universe of economic productivity. It is, by fact and praxis, made up of different components and values aggregation.”