Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, says the administration of President Bola Tinubu is working to put Nigeria on a solid economic pedestal.
Onanuga said this in a statement in Abuja. He was reacting to the accusation by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the Tinubu-led administration was trying to entrench a one-party state.
“Unlike the PDP’s administration of 16 years, the Tinubu administration has been confronting the problems of our country headlong.
“The administration is moving for an audacious reset that will firmly put our country on a solid economic pedestal.
“The results are already showing. Contrary to the pessimism and wishes of some PDP leaders, the national currency has become the world’s best-performing.
“Appreciating by almost 50% against the dollar in few weeks, exchange rate is stabilising as a convergence has been reached between official and so-called parallel market,” Onanuga said.
He added that the contrived pall of gloom cast over the country had faded out and renewed hope had been on leashed. He said such was the positive trend the APC economic programme had generated that the IMF had reviewed upward the growth projection for Nigeria in 2024 from 2.9% to 3.3%.
Onanuga said the Tinubu administration had targeted higher growth with its plans to embark on audacious infrastructure projects, such as the Badagry-Sokoto Highway and the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
He said the government’s economic team was doing well, adding that no sane government would change a winning team. This, he said, was especially true if such a team was working in sync with the advisory of the private sector, state governors and economic gurus in the country.
“It was surprising that the PDP under whose watch Boko Haram was born in 2009 could so unabashedly blame the Tinubu administration for what it wrongly termed an increasing spate of terrorism and banditry.
“This is far from the truth. Security has improved, with fewer cases of terrorist attacks and banditry recorded,” Onanuga stated.
He added that in recent weeks, over a thousand kidnapped victims, had been rescued by the country’s gallant armed forces, without the government paying the ransom. He advised the PDP to harmonise its home first, rather than accuse Tinubu of trying to entrench a one-party state, saying the president nurses no such plan.