Buhari’s economic retreat starts on Monday

An economic retreat convened by the present

administration to offer solutions to the current

economic challenges facing Nigeria will hold on

Monday and Tuesday next week.

The retreat, being put together by the National

Economic Council, which has the 36 state

governors as members and Vice-President Yemi

Osinbajo as chairman, will hold in the

Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to a statement on Thursday by the

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President

on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande,

President Muhammadu Buhari will deliver the

keynote address during the retreat’s opening

session on Monday.

Akande said Osinbajo, being the chairman of

NEC, which is an advisory body to the President,

would preside over the retreat with governors

from the 36 states of the federation attending.

Others expected at the meeting, according to

the statement, are the Central Bank Governor,

Godwin Emefiele; and the Minister of Budget

and National Planning, Udo Udoma, among other

top government functionaries.

The statement reads, “The objective of the NEC

retreat is to provide a forum for in-depth

discussions by NEC members of the policy

actions that the states and the Federal

Government can consider in order to stimulate

local production, cut costs and enhance public

revenues among other measures to stimulate

the economy.

“Contrary to suggestions, the retreat is not an

emergency national economic conference.

“The idea was mooted at the last regular NEC

meeting in January, where members requested

an intensive session to review economic trends

and evolve strategies to cope.”

The retreat, which was earlier fixed for March

10 and 11, was later put off to allow for more

preparations on the part of the organisers.

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, had called

on the President to summon an emergency

economic meeting to chart a course to save the

country from further drift.

Soyinka, who made the call when he visited the

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai

Mohammed, in Abuja, had said experts and

consumers should be invited to the meeting.

“The President should call an emergency

economic conference, with experts to be invited;

consumers, producers, labour unions, university

experts, professors, etc. I think we really need

an emergency economic conference, a rescue

operation, bringing as many heads as possible

together to plot the way forward,” Soyinka had

said.

Meanwhile, Buhari said the current economic

crisis, plaguing the nation, was a blessing in

disguise.

Buhari said this at the opening ceremony of the

International Islamic Conference on Peace and

Nation Building in Abuja on Thursday.

The President said through the hardship,

Nigerians would be able to come up with ideas

that would in turn lead to development.

He said, “The global economic challenges the

world is grappling with today might well turn out

to be a blessing for us in Nigeria, because it will

stimulate the latent economic opportunities that

we have left untapped for decades.

“Poverty breeds disaffection, which in turn leads

to crime and lawlessness, including

confrontation against the state. To checkmate

this, we must work hard to lift our economy,

engage our youths and rebuild infrastructure.’’

Buhari lamented the level of official corruption

in the nation, adding that it led to many years of

hardship for Nigerians. He, however, promised

to do everything possible to curb the menace.

While declaring the conference open, the

President commended the Jama’atu Izalatil

Bid’a Wa Iqamatis Sunna and the Muslim World

League for the event at a time when the nation

was grappling with insecurity.

Buhari, who described Boko Haram as a

mindless terrorist organisation, said the Federal

Government was winning the fight against

insurgency.

He said once the war was over, the government

would commission a sociological study to

determine the origin, the remote and immediate

causes of the movement, its sponsors, its

international connections if any, to ensure that

measures were taken to prevent a resurgence.

The President added, “The tragic paradox of the

global insurgency situation is that most of the

atrocities committed by various insurgents all

over the world today are being carried out

mainly by people who pretend to be Muslims,

yet most of the victims and casualties are

equally Muslims.

“No religion approves of such heinous crimes

against humanity; definitely not Islam or

Christianity, the two to which most Nigerians

belong.

“Religious leaders must intensify their efforts to

send out the real teachings of their religion in

order to counter the diabolical ideology that

motivates the insurgent elements.”