Rotimi Abiru, deputy whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly, has mocked the Federal Government’s assertion that Nigeria has the best economy in Africa.
According to Abiru, this is the biggest illusion of the century.
Responding to the assertion on Wednesday, Abiru observed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the nation, which revealed that Nigeria’s economy is ahead of South Africa’s, is no cause for jubilation.
“The new GDP is nothing to be happy about because it is not in terms of per capita income. What is the essence of becoming Africa’s biggest economy when it doesn’t translate to improved standard of living for the common man?” he asked.
“What is the essence of the new GDP figure when it doesn’t translate to reduction in unemployment in the country? There is virtually nothing to be happy about. Nigeria has earlier been rated as one of the poorest countries in the world by the World Bank, and as a matter of fact, it was rated with countries that are either over-populated or ravaged by war like Bangladesh, China, India, Democratic Republic of Congo whereas our dear country does not suffer such fate”.
Abiru questioned the criteria for making the assertion, saying the new GDP and the World Bank rating are parallel things. He also observed that an average Nigerian citizen does not have access to basic life necessities, such as potable water, decent accommodation, good healthcare delivery system, and electricity. So he concluded that having the largest economy is practically in consequential to many Nigerians.
“Basically, the new GDP does not translate to good living condition for the mass of Nigerians when about 80 per cent are living below poverty line. As a matter of fact, out of that, more than 60 per cent are actually living below 1 dollar per day, which means the country harbours the poorest of the poor”, Abiru noted.
“Life expectancy is below 50 years, while infant mortality rate is 78 per 1000 live births; under-five mortality rate is 124 per 1000 live births and Nigeria has the seventh highest infant mortality rate in the world”.
He further fingered bad governance as the root cause of the lopsided and the inordinate correlation between the economy growth and the per capita income.
“Nigeria boasts of the richest man in Africa and it also parades the poorest people in the world. One out of seven poorest people in the world is a Nigerian. The economy of the country has been put in the stronghold of less than 1 per cent of the population,” he added.
In a separate reaction, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) challenged the Federal Government to translate the impressive economic growth to improved living conditions for Nigerians.
In a statement by its Acting President, Promise Adewusi, titled Good GDP Without Sustainable and Viable Jobs: A Time Bomb, the labour maintained that economic growth without jobs and food on the table for Nigerians meant nothing.
“As cheering as this news may be, we at the Nigeria Labour Congress are not completely swayed by the latest Gross Domestic Product, GDP, figure, nationalist as it seems”, a part of the statement read.
“Nigeria being the biggest economy in Africa ought to make no news if vital national statistics such as population, natural resources, among others, were to form the requisite assumptions for assessment.
“More importantly, an improved GDP will only make meaning to us in labour if it translates into improved living conditions for the ordinary Nigerian, which is not the case at the moment. Living conditions in the past couple of years have been progressively nose-diving and pathetic”.
NLC insisted that economic growth without jobs and food on the table, means nothing in realty, particularly when unemployment figures are frightening.
“We have found it necessary to warn, times without number, that the army of the unemployed youths constitutes a veritable army of the disparate, the desperate and the angry, and that government should urgently address the problem”, the statement added.
“So far nothing has illustrated this fear better than the recent immigration recruitment exercise tragedy. We, therefore, do not need any economist or diviner to tell us that life has improved, because it has not.
“AGDP could not be said to have significantly improved if our industries are virtually shut and operating environment increasingly hostile. Government should worry that the performance index of industries dropped from 46.08% to 25.81%, while service industry more than doubled to 50% from 23.03%.
“This certainly represents a significant change in the economy, a negative change that points to consumption to the exclusion of production. As we commend the government for achieving the feat of economic rebasing, we urge it to ensure this figure translates into improved living conditions, jobs, revival of industries and improvement of internal and national security”.
