- * Says US Position On Freedom Of Religion Vindicates Buhari
By Chinwendu Agoha (Governance Reporter)
There has been a challenge to both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Federal Government of Nigeria's projection for the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2021.
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) says the country's GDP growth for the year will surpass both predictions. While IMF predicted 2.6% growth, the Federal Government put it at 3%.
According to the group, quoting figures from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria's GDP stood at 4.03% in the third quarter of 2021 from 5.01% in the second quarter, as against IMF prediction of 2.56% growth.
In a statement by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, BMO said the Federal Government forecast 3% for the same period, "but, based on several positive indicators, the country’s GDP will indeed exceed the IMF projection of 2.6% and the government's 3% at the end of the year 2021.
"We believe that Nigeria’s aggregate GDP growth will surpass both projections based on the various proactive and progressive economic measures put in place by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
"It will be recalled that the Covid-19 pandemic had plunged many countries' economies towards a downward GDP trajectory, with Nigeria being no exception.
"We however note that the country's economy had shown some resilience even before the pandemic, and following the various economic measures enunciated by the Buhari administration; among them, the Economic Sustainability Plan(ESP), the country was able to withstand the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, and its economy remained even more resilient and productive till today.
"We believe that President Muhammadu Buhari’s foresight early in his administration to promote the diversification of the country’s economy equally helped the country’s economy to withstand the after-effects of the global shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic for the greater part of 2021.
"We also see the upward rise in the GDP growth of Nigeria as a positive sign that the economic policies of the Buhari administration are working, and soon Nigerians will start reaping the benefits inherent in them".
The group commended the Buhari administration for the prudent and transparent management of the country’s economy, which it believes has saved the country from the calamitous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In another development, the BMO has described the United States Government's decision to remove Nigeria from the list of countries without religious freedom as a vindication for President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.
The group said in another statement by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, said that what the US Department of State did was to leverage on its vantage position to sift facts from fictional tales of state-sponsored persecution of Christians.
"We join millions of well-meaning Nigerians to commend US President Joe Biden's administration for doing its due diligence on allegations in 2020 that made the previous Donald Trump administration add Nigeria to the list of countries believed to be willfully violating religious freedom.
"This is a landmark move in the face of the recent spate of lobbying by individuals and groups, with some form of bias against President Buhari, to further their needless opposition to the administration.
"We know that a number of them have made and continue to make all sorts of unverifiable claims which suggest that the President has been encouraging persecution of Christians.
"It got to a point where a supposedly well educated and informed Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah recently misled the US Congress by giving the impression that the choice of the heads of the three arms of government was deliberately orchestrated to give Muslims an advantage.
"These were some of the dummies sold to the international community for one reason or the other, but we make bold to say that the Buhari administration has continued to maintain a delicate balance on religion, especially between Christians and Muslims in appointments".
BMO also used the opportunity to decry further attempts to denigrate the Buhari administration, even after the US had had its say on religious freedom in Nigeria.
"It is disheartening to see some Nigerians and their international collaborators still bent on pushing misleading information on the situation in the country.
"We find it surprising that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), with the backing of some of our people, could conclude that "violence by militant Islamists and other non-state armed actors as reasons for Nigeria to be sanctioned.
"But we are quite elated to see how the US differentiated the Nigerian authorities from Boko Haram and its offshoot, ISWAP, contrary to the expectation of those who had been giving the false impression of a link between the Buhari administration and the terrorists.
"We are also constrained to dismiss, as a blatant lie, a claim by a group known as Open Doors that an average of 10 Christians are killed everyday for their faith. It is an unfair line being pushed by anarchists who do not mean well for the country and are using the Christian persecution gimmick to make money from donor groups", the group added.
BMO also reassured Nigerians that the Buhari administration would continue to degrade the capacity of Boko Haram terrorists to threaten the country's territorial integrity. NNL.
