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    You are at:Home»Governance»TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE HON MINISTER OF INFORMATIONAND CULTURE, ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED, AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CENTRE INABUJA ON THURSDAY, SEPT. 22ND 2022
    Lai-Mohammed
    Lai-Mohammed

    TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE HON MINISTER OF INFORMATION
    AND CULTURE, ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED, AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CENTRE IN
    ABUJA ON THURSDAY, SEPT. 22ND 2022

    0
    By TheFocusNews on September 22, 2022 Governance

    TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE HON MINISTER OF INFORMATION
    AND CULTURE, ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED, AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CENTRE IN
    ABUJA ON THURSDAY, SEPT. 22ND 2022

    Good morning gentlemen

    Last week, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples
    Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, spoke on
    his Economic Blueprint at an event in Lagos. Let me say, straightaway,
    that the so-called blueprint is a crude attempt at copying all that
    the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has done, especially
    in the areas of job creation, infrastructure financing, relationship
    with the private sector, rejuvenation of the power sector, poverty
    reduction, debt management and the overall management of the economy.
    I will give details in the course of this press conference.

    1. But it is more shocking that an opposition that has condemned all
      that this Administration has done would turn around to weave its
      so-called Economic Blueprint around the same things that are currently
      being done by the same Administration. This press conference,
      therefore, is aimed at exposing the hypocrisy inherent in an
      opposition that condemns an Administration while also showcasing a
      blueprint that is nothing but a poor version of what’s on ground.
    2. Let’s start with infrastructure. The former Vice President said,
      in his Economic Blueprint, that ‘rebuilding infrastructure and
      reducing infrastructure deficit will enhance the carrying capacity of
      the economy and unleash growth and wealth creation’. No one
      understands this better than this Administration. Even our worst
      critics will agree that our record on infrastructure development is
      next to none in the history of this country. Across the country, we
      have constructed 8,352.94 kilometres of roads, rehabilitated 7,936.05
      kilometres of roads, constructed 299 bridges, maintained 312 bridges
      and created 302,039 jobs in the process. We have also delivered houses
      in 34 states of the Federation under the first phase of the National
      Housing Project. We were able to achieve these through a combination
      of budget increase and innovative infrastructure financing methods.
      Whereas we met a budget of N18.132 billion for the roads component of
      the Federal Ministry of Works when we assumed office in 2015, the
      budget for the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing increased
      exponentially to N260.082 billion in 2016; N274.252 billion in 2017,
      N356.773 billion in 2018, N223.255 billion in 2019, N227.963 billion
      in 2020 and N241.864 billion in 2021. Therefore, for anyone using this
      as a campaign stunt, without acknowledging what we have done so far,
      is cheap and disingenuous.
    3. The former Vice President also promised to ‘break the jinx’ in
      infrastructure financing. Really? We state, unequivocally, that the
      worst jinx in infrastructure financing was the PDP Administration from
      1999 to 2015. Indeed, the Buhari Administration has long broken that
      jinx, leveraging on such innovative schemes as the Presidential
      Infrastructure Development Fund (which is being used to finance the
      Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 2nd Niger Bridge and the
      Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road), Sukuk (which has delivered a total of
      1,881 kilometres of roads between
      2017 and 2020) and the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (for the
      construction and rehabilitation of Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba-Ilorin road,
      reconstruction of Apapa Wharf road, construction of
      Apapa-Oworonsoki-Ojota
      road and the Bonny-Bodo road with bridge). The NNPC-funded part of the
      Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme has also delivered nine roads in
      North-Central, three in North-East, two in North-West, two in
      South-East, three in
      South-South and two in South-West for a total of 1,804 kilometres of roads.
    4. In the area of power, ex-Vice President Atiku said ‘investments in
      additional generation capacity are futile without consideration for
      the complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to
      wheel the additional energy’. He then promised to propose legislation
      to, among others, give states the power to generate, transmit and
      distribute electricity. It is apparent that Alhaji Atiku has either
      not heard of the Siemens partnership with the Federal Government under
      the Presidential Power Initiative, the most ambitious project yet in
      the efforts to improve the seemingly-intractable power sector on which
      the PDP frittered over 16 billion dollars to procure nothing but
      darkness. The Nigeria-Siemens partnership was consummated with the
      signing of the Implementation Agreement on July 22nd 2019. The
      three-phase project will deliver 7,000MW in the first phase, 11,000MW
      in the second phase and 25,000MW in the third phase. This will
      positively impact job creation, boost investor confidence, accelerate
      economic growth and reduce cost of doing business. For those who may
      be in doubt, let me say that this project is a game changer. As you
      may have read, electricity equipment ordered under the project have
      started arriving in the country. When they are installed, there will
      be a major improvement in the supply of electricity across the
      country. It is also amazing that His Excellency the former VP has not
      heard or read that the Senate has passed the electricity bill 2022
      that would allow states to generate and distribute power as well as
      solve the sector’s challenges.
    5. Alhaji Atiku also spoke on poverty reduction, which he said would
      be the ‘centrepiece of our economic development agenda’. Could it be
      that His Excellency has not heard about our National Social Investment
      Programme (NSIP), the unprecedented programme that is directly and
      indirectly impacting the lives of poor Nigerians and creating jobs,
      especially for the youths, through four clusters, namely: the N-Power
      Programme, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP),
      the National Home-Grown School Feeding System (NHGSFP) and the
      Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme. From 2016 to date, the
      NSIP, which has received commendation from many international
      agencies, has empowered 1 million youths while an additional 500,000
      are undergoing various training under the N-Power programme; enrolled
      1,632,480 households in the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme and
      gave productive cash grants of N150,000 each to 4,234 people. The NSIP
      has also stimulated unprecedented enrolments in public primary schools
      through the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme that is
      feeding 9.8 million children, while there are 2,424,253 beneficiaries
      of the GEEP loans under TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni, in
      addition to a total of 1,142,783 individuals who have registered to
      benefit from GEEP 2.0 under the three loan products. These programmes
      represent a practical demonstration of the progressive achievement of
      the President’s target of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty
      by 2030.
    6. The former Vice President told his audience that if elected, his
      Administration would ‘establish a strong partnership (with the private
      sector) in investing in infrastructure, creating jobs, income and in
      the fight against poverty’. Let’s inform His Excellency that the
      Buhari Administration’s ”warm handshake” with the private sector has
      delivered and is delivering an unprecedented number of projects,
      including the 650,000bpd Dangote Refinery, Dangote Fertilizer plant,
      Lekki Deep Sea Port, BUA Cement, the 5,000bpd Waltersmith Modular
      Refinery in Imo
      State; the 2,500bpd Duport Modular Refinery/Energy Park in Edo State;
      the 2,000bpd Atlantic Modular Refinery in Bayelsa State; the 12,000bpd
      Azikel Modular Refinery also in Bayelsa; the five LPG Bottling plants
      and six LPG depots in 10 northern states and Abuja, the 48,000 L/D
      base oil production plant in Rivers and the 10,000 Metric Tonnes Per
      Day methanol production plant in Bayelsa, just to mention a few. These
      refineries and other projects are the result of a ”warm handshake”
      between the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board and
      private sector actors. The private sector is also involved in the
      ongoing infrastructure development through the Road Infrastructure Tax
      Credit Scheme, which I mentioned earlier.
    7. Shockingly, the former Vice President seems to know little or
      nothing about the Buhari Administration’s unprecedented efforts to
      make fertilizer available at affordable prices to Nigerian farmers,
      and how global developments have negatively impacted on the price of
      fertilizer today, when he said ‘farmers now pay 200% more for a bag of
      fertilizer – if they see it – than they did in 2020′. This is an
      unfortunate statement that reflected the total lack of understanding
      of the issues at stake. The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI),
      which was flagged-off in Dec 2016 by President Muhammed Buhari, aimed
      to support the domestic blending of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer in order
      to reduce the challenges of the Nigerian farmers. The PFI delivered on
      key outcomes, including over 30 million bags of 50kg NPK 20:10:10
      equivalent during the project period and price reduction on fertilizer
      from over N10,000 to under N5,500. Over its 5-year run, the programme
      succeeded in increasing the number of blending plants from only 4 to
      72 through the rejuvenation of 68 moribund blending plants, creating
      hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs and thousands of direct jobs in
      the process. But a number of factors, which are beyond this
      Administration, led to the current situation in which the cost of
      fertilizer rose to between 110 and 150% (That’s between N15,000 for
      NPK 20:10:10 and N23,000 for NPK 15:15:15). These factors include a
      three-fold increase in the cost of natural gas, a primary feedstock in
      fertilizer production, post-COVID-19 shutdowns of key raw materials
      manufacturing plants,
      sanctions imposed on Belarus and Russia, occasioned by the war between
      Russia and Ukraine, and the impact of significant domestic inflation
      on global and in-country logistics and transportation of fertilizer
      raw materials. It is also pertinent to recall that President Buhari
      had negotiated a fixed price for Phosphate at $290/MT and a fixed
      discount of $15/MT for Potash from the government of Morocco and
      Russia, respectively. The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative purchased
      raw materials at these prices for four years, between 2017 and 2020.
      From 2021 however, upon the restructuring of PFI, raw material
      purchases were undertaken at globally-traded prices. Phosphate prices
      increased 32% from $290/MT in 2017 to $1,255.0/MT in 2022, Potash
      prices rose by 364% moving from $256.0/MT in 2017 to
      $1,187.5/MT in 2022, while Urea prices rose by 246% from about $300/MT
      in 2018 to $1,037.5/MT in 2022. Under this development, no magic can
      keep the price of fertilizer at what it was before the astronomical
      increase in the cost of production.
    8. In his presentation, the former Vice President said ‘Nigeria under
      the APC-led government has consistently run on budget deficits since
      it came to power in 2015′, and that these ‘budget deficits are often
      above the 3% threshold permissible under the Fiscal Responsibility
      Law’. This is a misrepresentation of the facts. The truth is that
      Nigeria has been running on budget deficits since 2009 (not since
      2015), even when oil prices were over US$100 per barrel. You will
      recall that oil prices fell significantly from mid-2014, resulting in
      the country’s economic recession in 2016. The urgency to recover from
      the recession through an expansionary fiscal policy resulted in the
      continued budget deficits. However, in the last three years, the
      deficit level exceeded the 3% threshold stipulated in the Fiscal
      Responsibility Act 2007. Again, this is understandable because shortly
      after the Nigerian economy recovered from recession, it was hit by the
      effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. What His Excellency failed to tell
      his audience is that the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Section 12(2),
      allows for the budget deficit to exceed the 3% threshold if, in the
      opinion of the President, there is a clear and present threat to
      national security or the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of
      Nigeria. Gentlemen, you will agree that the Covid-19 pandemic
      triggered an existential threat in all economies of the world, Nigeria
      inclusive. Though Nigeria quickly recovered from the economic
      recession, it is now facing the effects
      of the Russia-Ukraine war, the lingering impact of COVID-19, and
      elevated inflation in most economies, prompting monetary tightening,
      with the adverse effects on capital inflow to emerging markets
      economies.
    9. While Nigeria may be facing economic challenges, the former Vice
      President’s pronouncement that the future of the country’s economy is
      ‘bleak’ is sheer scaremongering. The country’s economic outlook is not
      bleak. Instead, the economy has been resilient, having recovered from
      two recessions within five years – in 2016 and 2020. The Nigerian
      economy sustained its recovery from the 2020 recession for the 7th
      consecutive quarter, growing by 3.54% in real terms in Q2 2022, from
      3.11% in Q1 2022. Many sectors recorded positive economic growth,
      reflecting the effective implementation of policy measures prescribed
      in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), Annual Budgets, Finance
      Acts and National Development Plan (NDP).
    10. On debt, the former Vice President said ‘we will review the
      country’s debt strategy by focusing on concessional and
      semi-concessional sources with lower interest rates and relatively
      long-term maturity.’ Again, that is already being done by this
      Administration. In order to manage debt service cost and reduce
      refinancing risk, the thrust of the strategy is that this
      Administration will maximize concessional borrowing from multilateral
      and bilateral sources. In addition, new borrowing in the domestic and
      international capital markets would be for long tenors. Concessional
      borrowings are, in any case, long-term loans. To confirm the
      commitment to the above strategy and their implementation, over 58% of
      the External Debt Stock as at March 31, 2022 was from multilateral and
      bilateral sources while short term domestic debt was less than 22% of
      the Total Domestic Debt Stock as at the same date.
      In any case, the Lagos-Ibadan, the Abuja-Kaduna and the Warri-Itakpe
      standard gauge rail lines were constructed with concessional loans,
      just like the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri
      narrow gauge line. Same applies to the new airport terminals in Abuja,
      Lagos, Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt. So, the former Vice President
      has not said anything new.
    11. And on security, all that the leader of a party that frittered the
      money meant for the purchase of weapons and platforms for the military
      on frivolous activities could say is ‘we will take tough and difficult
      decisions on security matters without fear or favour.’ Really? While
      they lost confidence in our military and opted instead for
      mercenaries, President Buhari, who has never wavered in his belief in
      the capability of our fighting forces, steadily and surely re-equipped
      the military, which today is decimating the bandits and terrorists
      that had held sway in some parts of the country, thus restoring
      security.
    12. Gentlemen, let me say that I am not really very surprised that His
      Excellency the former Vice President only reeled out, in his so-called
      Economic Blueprint, what we have been doing in the past seven years
      plus in infrastructure development, infrastructure financing, poverty
      reduction, power reform, job creation, relationship with the private
      sector, debt management and the overall management of the economy.
      That’s what you get from someone who leaves the country after losing
      an election, only to parachute into town when another election is due.
    13. It is a measure of how much this Administration has achieved in
      all sectors that the best the opposition could do is to seek to copy
      what the Administration has been doing. Yet, the opposition – in its
      desperation to get power – has continued to deny and derogate the
      Administration’s achievements. For the record, there is nothing we
      have said today on the achievements of this Administration that we
      haven’t said before. No amount of deceit, misrepresentation,
      scaremongering, distortion of facts or derogation can subtract from
      the visible achievements of the Buhari Administration.
    14. An Administration that engaged in massive infrastructure
      development despite paucity of resources, an Administration that
      introduced the most expansive and effective poverty reduction and job
      creation policy in the history of this country, an Administration that
      re-equipped the military to tackle daunting security challenges
      instead of resorting to the use of mercenaries, an Administration that
      is moving the nation from darkness to light by embarking on the
      most-ambitious electricity project yet, an Administration that is
      partnering with the private sector to tackle the challenges facing the
      nation, and an Administration that borrowed to rebuild rather than for
      consumption should not be denigrated by an opposition that lacks
      originality, and an opposition that is aping a government it derides.
    15. I thank you for your kind attention
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