Minister denies blaming Buhari for economic woes

The minister for information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has denied blaming President Muhammadu Buhari for the poor state of Nigeria’s economy.

“My views were twisted,” Mohammed said in a statement on Sunday. “I was reported to have said that the economy of our country is beyond the control of the President.”

A section of the Nigerian media had claimed that the minister while speaking on an Abuja radio station, said that the economy has not witnessed any tangible upward trend because it was beyond what the President can deal with.

With a weak Naira, sliding prices of oil on the global market and low foreign reserves, experts believe the country is not about to witness any economic revival anytime soon.

But the minister said President Buhari was on course to turn around Nigeria’s declining fortune. He said his statement was twisted for selfish gains.

“This is a gross misrepresentation of what I said,” he said. “I could not have said our economy is out of the control of our President or the administration he heads. As a matter of fact, this Administration has decided to turn the economic disaster‎ that we inherited to a blessing by diversifying our economy.

“I don’t know the reason behind the gross distortion of my comments on the…, but whatever the motive is, Nigerians should disregard such distortion and continue to support our President and his Administration to take our country out of the woods.”

I never said Nigeria’s economy is beyond Buhari’s control.

— Alhaji Lai Mohammed (@MohammedLai) March 13, 2016