ADC to FG: Okonjo-Iweala’s comments were about suffering Nigerians

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said that the comments by the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the Nigerian economy, was more about the citizens, who are confronted with harsh economic challenges.

The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday, said the federal government allegedly choose to “celebrate the headlines”, while ignoring “the real message”.

Okonjo-Iweala, after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, lauded the president for stabilising the economy, and charged the federal government to build social safety nets to cushion effects of government reforms on the citizens, who are facing hardship.

However, the ADC stated that the government was celebrating the credit for “stabilising the economy”, while ignoring the WTO’s DG call for urgent measures to grow the economy and create social safety needs for Nigerians affected negatively by government reforms.

According to the party, “Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s recent comments on President Tinubu and the Nigerian economy have been seized upon by government officials and their media allies as if their scandalous implementation of hard reforms, which have condemned the majority of Nigerians to absolute poverty and destroyed millions of jobs, had received endorsement by the oracle herself. This is not correct.

“Dr Okonjo-Iweala knows that a stable economy is one that is growing in real terms, led by jobs and productivity. She knows that a stable economy is one that is able to guarantee minimum standards of living for the people. She knows that economic stability that leaves the majority in grinding poverty is meaningless.

“Therefore, what she’s really saying – which the government has chosen to ignore is that the economy is not growing, jobs are not being created, and too many people are suffering as a direct consequence of President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and badly implemented reforms. These are the issues she wanted the government to address.”