President Muhammadu Buhari
Nigerians have continued to react to the economic growth projections of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 60th Independence Day Speech, calling for more efforts from the Federal Government for economic growth.
Those who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos said it should be backed up with the right policies and implemented to the letter.
Mr Louis Essene, President of Junior Chambers International (JCI), Warri chapter, said the economic growth projections should be backed up with economic decisions and actions.
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“Concerning the economic projections to make Nigeria one of the world’s 20 best economies as stated by Buhari should go beyond rhetorics.
“These projections should be backed up with economic facts and we are in dire need of economic-growth minded people in the president’s team to achieve this feat.
“As a Nigerian, the Nigerian project is our dream, perusing through the independence speech it brings to the fore that there are so many indices to put in place to achieve economic growth in the country.
“Although the government is trying its best with the scarce resources we have available but we need that political will to grow our economy.
“It will take a process to get our economy working again, so, I commend the president for making these projections for the country, but we still need to do more,” Essene said.
Dr Salami Afegbua, a Public Administrator, on his part called on the government to tackle the socio-economic and political challenges facing the country.
“The president in his speech spoke about positioning Nigeria to move forward. He also maintained that 10 million people will be pulled out of poverty over time with the economic projections.
“Nigeria’s economy is a mono-driven economy; however, the country will not move forward economically if it does nothing to diversify its economy.
“The per capita income and standard of living in Nigeria is very low and the cost of living is uncontrollably high, the country could be said to be the poverty capital of the world.
“Going forward, this government and future ones need to tackle the socio-economic and political challenges facing the country.
“President Buhari’s speech will only remain rhetorics if practical and committed actions are not taken to address the above contentious issues,” Afegbua said.
According to Mr Enoch Adewunmi, a public commentator, the tackling of security issues in the country and provision of basic amenities for Nigerians will move the country forward.
“We wanted the president to speak out about the specific security issues we face in the country and not just generalise them.
“We should not compare ourselves with countries that sell their oil at high prices because they have better amenities and infrastructure than we do.
“To grow our economy the government has to put the right economic indices in place, we need an adequate power supply to drive our economy to grow.
“We cannot be a country that depends only on oil if we want our economy to grow as projected in the president’s speech,” Adewunmi said.
