“Buhari economic plans are mediocre, his government corrupt”

Former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party Martin Onovo has described government claim that Nigeria is out of recession as playing with words.

When you have a recession that is complicated by rising unemployment and rising inflation, that is stagflation. So it is deceitful in the first instance to claim that we exited the recession,” he told Channels Television on Tuesday.

According to him, Nigeria slid into depression, after five successive GDP decline. “That in the minimum is not a recession but a depression.”

He accused the government of corruption, and suggested that bringing ethical people into the administration is the only way to grow the economy.

“What are the things that help you grow your domestic productivity? Power, agriculture, manufacturing, just do the right things and, of course, man is the ultimate resource and your people have to be ethical,’ he said.

“The deceitful government does not encourage ethical people, a corrupt government does not encourage ethical people, a discriminating government does not encourage merit and that cannot encourage productivity.” 

On the Economy and Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in April, he told the presenter, “You cannot accept mediocrity and expect excellence.”

Onovi contested and lost in the 2015 presidental election in the platform of the NCP, a leftist party that has been struggling to break into national politics for about two decades.