Baba-Ahmed faults Fitch Ratings’ prediction, says country’s state of democracy poor
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, an economist by training before becoming a member of the Labour Party (LP), has described as misleading the prediction by Fitch Ratings that Nigeria’s inflation rate will moderate to 21.1 per cent in 2024 from an average 24.8 per cent in 2023.
“If you want to know what is happening in Nigeria, come to us in Nigeria and don’t read those statistics because they are misleading,” the former vice presidential candidate of the LP stressed on Arise News.
“They always speak about growth. It’s not growth actually that matters, those figures that give you, because there is nothing as misleading as far as welfare is concerned as growth.
“The stethoscope you use in measuring the heartbeat of an elephant, for example, China, cannot be the same one you use to measure the heartbeat of a rat.”
Fitch in its latest report affirmed Nigeria’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default outlook at a ‘B’ stable outlook, and its inflation would decrease by 5.62 from 26.72 per cent.
“Fitch projects inflation moderates to 21.1 per cent in 2024 from an average 24.8 per cent in 2023, helped by lower deficit monetisation, but well above the ‘B’ medians of 6.0 per cent and 4.9 per respectively.”
It equally projected 1.1 per cent growth in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 8.5 per cent between 2023 and 2025, and budget deficit/GDP reduction to 5.0 per cent in 2024 and 4.6 per cent in 2025.
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Nigeria’s state of democracy poor, Baba-Ahmed says
Baba-Ahmed reiterated the state of democracy in Nigeria is poor, and the people have to wake up, according to reporting by Vanguard.
“For a people that are ready to accept anything, then anything will happen to them,
“Anytime the Nigerian people decide that they want to defend their Constitution and take back power in their country, anything can happen, and any fraudulent government will be fair game for them.
“For Peter Obi and me, it is over. For we, the people, the Nigerian people, at any point in time, they can take back Nigeria.”
He said the LP completely rejects the Supreme Court judgment on the presidential election, even though it stands, because “we can’t do anything about it. They have the power, nobody can do anything about it.
“That is why we said it is an unreasonable show of force. If there was something we could do, we would stop it, but we are law abiding citizens, that is why I’m here sitting with you today and still complaining.”