The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has offered suggestion to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on how to reflate the economy after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report officially said the nation’s economy is in recession.
Even before the economy has gone into full recession, President Muhammadu Buhari was said to be proposing a bill to the National Assembly to grant him emergency powers to reflate the economy.
But the opposition party in a statement on Sunday advised the Federal Government to look inward by inviting economic experts irrespective of their political leaning, to join hands with the administration at these trying times.
The statement signed by Prince Dayo Adeyeye, spokesperson of the National Caretaker Committee, told the APC to stop blaming the immediate past administration on its incompetence and poor handling of the economy, which it attributed as cause of the recession.
“This blame is misplaced because our elementary understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses,” PDP observed.
According to the party, world history is full of many examples where genuine leaders take over countries whose economies are stagnated and move them to positive growth.
“They should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike the prevailing situation where a ruling party plunges the economy into an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly like a baby,” the statement said.
Citing the case of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ruled the United States of America (USA) during the time of the world economic depression (in the 1930s) and war (1940s), PDP noted that his ambitious programme, “The Great Deal”, offered relief to the Americans and helped the economy to recover.
”In his first hundred days in office in 1933, Roosevelt was reputed to have renewed the American spirit and optimism by immediately addressing the effects of the depression.
“Through the Great Deal, he introduced a variety of programmes targeted at getting Americans back to work, provide relief for the vulnerable, get industry and agriculture back on their feet, and engender accelerated recovery and economic growth.
“Or, how about the recent change of government in the United Kingdom where the new Prime Minister, Theresa May formed her cabinet within hours to ensure that the doubts arising from the uncertainty of Brexit vote do not get the better of her citizens?” PDP added.
It challenged the APC to tell Nigerians the character of the economic team in place that has been managing the nation’s economy since May 29, 2015.
