He was asked to respond to calls by Nigerians for President Buhari to sack his economic team over the current economic crisis, Mr. Shehu said:
“I think that in my view the recession is being overhyped because recession is in the normal cycle of economics. It is not the first time we are going through this. I think that the media has a responsibility to the nation to not create panic over this situation.”
Mallam Shehu was also asked if President Buhari should prioritize reviving the economy rather than politicking in Edo State, Mallam Shehu said the President is doing both. Mallam Shehu also added:
“The media should drive the country to the path of normalcy. When we behave as if recession is never a feature of other economies in the world, then everyone begins to panic and people lose their heads over this. The fact that we have recession does not mean that there must not be normal lives.”
“It’s not like we should freeze everything until the country comes out of recession. Life must go on. If you sack the economic team, does it bring more dollars to the central bank for sale? Diversification of the economy has to be done. This economy has been severely contracted on account of the shortage of the US dollar and structurally we have failed ourselves as a people and as a country over the years because we ought to have diversified the economy.”
“The sabotage of the oil industry, the bombings in the Niger Delta has cut our output to nearly half. That obviously would have negative impact on the economy. So the government is talking to the Niger Deltans.”
Mallam Shehu concluded by saying Nigeria should be out of recession by the end of 2016, citing data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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