The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described Nigeria’s new status among the top 25 economies in the world as a reflection of the hard work the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is putting into building a more resilient economy.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that this has culminated in the country moving up from 46th to 25th position in spite of the global economic crisis caused by Covid-19.
“Much has been said about Nigeria being in a recession but we invite Nigerians to note that the country is among the top 25 economies in the world as 2020 draws to a close. It is also one of only three countries which made a quantum leap among the world’s biggest economies.
“This, more than anything, is a testament to the painstaking steps that President Buhari has been taking, since his inauguration in 2015, to build a structurally resilient economy that would withstand the type of global crisis that Covid-19 brought in its wake.
“It is a reflection of policies which began with the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) at the inception of the administration and later culminated in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) with which the Buhari administration is creatively working its way out of a pandemic-induced recession.
“It is against this backdrop that government is not only weaning the country away from its over-reliance on oil but also putting in place measures to boost the non-oil sector to the level that it is contributing a much higher percentage to the country’s GDP numbers.
“So it is not surprising that when Nigeria’s GDP recorded a 6.10% contraction in Q2 of 2020, at a time the global average was -15%, economic experts hailed the Nigerian government for doing a great job, and this soon dropped to 3% in Q3 of 2020″, it added.
BMO noted that the country was making great strides and attracting global acclaim at a time that a group of Nigerians were wishing the country bad.
“We saw how only a few days ago, individuals and groups who do not wish the country well jumped on a poorly thought-out editorial by United Kingdom’s Financial Times to mock their own country just because of their ill-feelings towards a President they didn’t support in the 2015 and 2019 elections.
“But now that a globally acclaimed group of economists have ranked Nigeria among the 25 top economies in the world, using clearly verifiable indices which also put the country in the league of China and Indonesia as fastest global movers, those political naysayers have lost their voice.
“ And just like we reminded those characters and others who are averse to good news, this boils down to the single-minded commitment of the Buhari administration to leaving a structurally resilient economy to Nigerians, in contrast to the culture of abandoned projects and institutionalized corruption that characterised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) years.
“This was why we said a few months ago that Nigeria would have collapsed if the former ruling party were to be in power at the centre at this time of a global pandemic, with its penchant for voodoo economics which it used to hoodwink Nigerians back then while political cronies diverted the nation’s resources”.
BMO also reassured Nigerians that the President would not rest on his oars in his remaining time in office, but continue to ensure that he makes the country better than he met it.