Attitude of Nigerian government responsible for recession, says political activist

National President of Campaign for Democracy (CD), Bako Abdul Usman, has blamed the recession in which Nigeria has found itself on the nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government and the failure to come up with an appropriate policy to save the nation’s economy from its current woes.

He noted that careless expenditures, especially amongst the political office holders that is becoming a financial burden on the public treasury must be looked into by the Federal Government.

Usman, who is a political activist, asserted this in an exclusive telephone interview with Businessday on Tuesday.

“It is a deliberate attempt by the government to lead Nigerians into recession. This recession is avoidable if the government is proactive enough to tackle the issue of insecurity in the country and checkmate excessive spending that is not adding values to Nigerians.

“It is public knowledge that there is no flow of cash among the people, even before the pronouncement of the recession by the government. So, the government must come up with a policy that encourages the legitimate flow of cash among the people,” he explained.

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Usman argued that insecurity in some states is deliberate because of the security votes accrued to the governors whenever there is insecurity in their states. “The security votes should be accounted for by the governors, “he emphasized.

Similarly, a concerned citizen, Yamai Bobai, has also attributed the current recession to insecurity in the country, saying that insecurity is one of the factors that has greatly contributed to the recession.

“The money that is been spent on security is enough to boost the economy and help the small scale businesses to grow in the country if the security issues are properly managed,” Bobai said.

According to him, mismanagement of funds and the corruption in the system played a vital role in leading the country into recession; while advising that borrowed money should be used for capital projects that will add values to the well-being of Nigerians.

While emphasizing on the issue of insecurity, Bobai explained further that nobody would invest in an unsecured environment.

“If a country is not secured it would not encourage the inflow of foreign investors into the country. Another reason while we are in this recession is that government does not take criticism seriously; there were lots of predictions before now but the government didn’t take those predictions seriously,” he stressed.