President Muhammadu Buhari
By Soni Daniel, Abuja
President of the Nigerian Economic Society, Prof Sarah Olanrewaju Anyanwu, has denied ever describing the nation’s economy under President Muhammadu Buhari as being unstable and directionless.
Prof Anyanwu, who addressed a news conference in Abuja on Thursday expressed shock and dismay over the attribution of what she never said during her visit to the Senate Minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya, on Monday, to her.
A national newspaper had on Monday quoted the NES president as saying that the country’s economy under Buhari was unstable and directionless, a claim that is now generating serious concern in the Presidency and the society.
But Anyanwu denied ever speaking to any reporter of the newspaper, which reported the said story on Monday, claiming that the presentation she made to Senator Abaribe did not contain any of the issues credited to her and the NES by the medium.
The NES president said: “The NES dissociates itself from the claim that the Nigerian economy is unstable and directionless under Buhari as such quote did not emanate from the society or its president.
“The Society holds in high esteem the strong partnership between it and the government and looks forward to a better, stronger and closer continuous working partnership.
“Consequently, the NES hereby rejects and disclaims the news report entitled “Nigerian Economy Unstable, Directionless Under Buhari” in its entirety, and disassociates itself from both the headline and its contents,” Prof Anyanwu said at the press briefing in its office in Abuja.
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The NES also dismissed as faulty the claim that its president asked the Senate Minority Leader to expedite the passage of its Bill ‘already submitted’ to the National Assembly, saying that she only solicited the NASS to consider and pass the bill, which is still being worked on, when it is finally submitted to the legislature.
Apparently to prove her point, the NES president presented a copy of the presentation she made to the Senate Minority Leader on Monday to reporters present at the media briefing at the NES office in Abuja, and asked the media to ex-ray her presentation and confirm whether there was any reference to the government economic management as being unstable and directionless.
It was gathered that the Presidency had already taken note of the attributed to the NES and made a veiled reference to it in some other channels.
