Dr. Oby Ezekwesili has denied the praises for the Bola Tinubu administration attributed to her following her recent interview on News Central TV. Dr. Ezekwesili had been quoted to have handed effusive praises for the current administration’s economic efforts in multiple media reportage of the interview.
The former Education minister has however come out to set the records straight stating “If you have any iota of credibility left, delete this falsehood. What kind of rag-sheet journalism is this? Are you all that desperate for a praise from Oby Ezekwesili for the administration,
What Was Said During The Interview
In the News Central TV interview monitored by Arbiterz, Dr. Ezekwesili was asked to give an assessment of the current administration to which she stated ” I think you would basically take the most important indicator that tells you where society is headed, and that is, you know, what’s the dignity or the lack of it of life. What’s the state of the dignity of life? Every other thing hangs on people being alive, and when people are not alive, then you can’t even talk about, you wouldn’t care about education or health or the economy.
“You take a typical indicator that is a catch-all for what I’m saying about the state of insecurity that has declined the quotient of dignity of life, it would be, you know, the global terrorism ranking. So Nigeria was around sixth most terrorized country. By the last ranking, it had become the fourth most terrorized country, come on, in the world.”
She further noted the widespread poverty in the land stating “It’s about 145 million Nigerians now trapped in poverty, you know, from a number that was about 133 million as of the time that the previous administration, which is, you know, this government, they tell us that they continue. That is a continuation. Even if they didn’t tell us, we do know that, you know, this particular, the actors in this administration were praising the previous administration and lauding the policies of that administration.”
“The only thing that, as I said at the beginning, we can give to them is they are getting a handle on macroeconomic stability. So, for example, the volatility we have with foreign exchange rate is quieter because they are abiding by market principles for foreign exchange policy.
“Then you look at inflation. Inflation, even though they use the methodology to crash it in terms of the numbers, but the real thing is that the cost of living for the average citizen is still pretty high,” she emphasised.
She argued that the inflationary crisis experienced by the country was avoidable, describing it as the consequence of poor management and a combination of policy choices.
“The inflation that spiked did not have to happen. It was a poor management of a combination of policies that led to that runaway kind of inflation that we had,” she said.
