President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the criticism that his handling of the economy led the country into a recession.
Speaking at the State House, in Abuja on Thursday, during a meeting with the Senior Executive Course No 38 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS), he said that it was not his administration that led the country into recession.
The president said: “In the last one and half years of this administration, the economy has experienced some tough times, particularly with the decline in oil revenues, which has some harsh impacts on Nigerians at the grassroots.
“It is also important to note that the economic recession is not the making of this administration, but rather a consequence of bad management of the economy in the past couple of decades. Nor is recession limited to Nigeria; there are far, far worse cases than Nigeria.”
The president, however, said that no matter the scale of the problem facing the country, the important thing was how to tackle it.
He said his administration was committed to finding lasting solutions to the nation’s economic structural imbalance.
“Let us have faith in our great nation that we will come out of this recession vibrant and strong,” he added.
The president said it was impossible for his administration to ignore the poor who made great sacrifice to bring him to government.
He said: “Ours more than any other government in the history of Nigeria is a people’s government. We therefore must and we will keep faith with the people.”
President Buhari admitted that at a point after he was inaugurated as the President in May 2015, he felt like running away.
He said he would have taken the decision because of the myriad of problems his administration inherited from past governments. – Additional report from Thisday.
