By Amidu Arije
Special Assistant to President Muhamadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has emphasised that what the nation needed to grow and sustain its economic development is diversification.
Adesina, who spoke at the 2nd annual lecture of SWAAYA Limited publishers of Freedom Online, an online newspaper, said the Federal Government has made strides in diversifying the economy to improve the agriculture, solid minerals and manufacturing industries.
He further stated that the President Buhari-led government was making tremendous progress on diversifying the economy to take it away from mono product dependant.
In his words, “The government is already working towards sustaining the economy because diversification was what the Nigeria economy has always needed but now that diversification is working; agriculture is succeeding; solid mineral is succeeding, manufacturing is hitching up, that is how you can sustain the economy as long you are a mono-product economy, it is not sustainable but we are diversifying, we are no longer depending on mono-product which is oil,” he said.
The presidential spokesperson also said that the Federal Government has made giant strides in sustaining the inflation index of the country as it keeps dropping for 20 months consecutively.
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When pressured that Nigerians are complaining of no visibility of the claimed success in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors of the economy, Adesina said what was needed was ‘preconception change’.
“It is a preconception and the people need to purge themselves of that preconception if inflation has dropped for 20 months consecutively who is it affecting is it not the masses so people must purge themselves of that misconception,” he said.
While speaking at the occasion, a former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, said economy development should not be politicised if development must be guarantee.
According to Daniel, “The conclusion that we have is that our economy can be lot better and to a large extend, a number of these issues are been unduly politicize.
“Economy theories are classical and straightforward is either we are getting right or not, we are hoping that the kind of intervention that economy need people will begin to get it right on dispositions, our value systems and our attitudes are not consistence with what can give us a good result in terms of economic diversification but by and large all these have to do with the kind of leadership we have and once the leader shows the way Nigeria will follow. We are hoping that it will be less of politics and more of actions, things we start happening,” he said.
Adding, the former governor said the government should hands off control of the economy by allowing private individuals to take charge of the economy and government to provide the enabling environment for them to succeed.
“The government basically has no business in business and to a large extend Nigerians individuals must be encourage to take on the business on this side while the government provide the enabling environment,” he said.
