The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has said that no one can arrive at a fair assessment of the present administrations achievement in the last one year but so far what is glaring is that the federal government has saved the economy from collapse.
Gbajabiamila who made the comment at a town hall meeting in his Suru Lere constituency in Lagos explained that one year is not enough to give a fair or concise verdict.
He said the present administration inherited a comatose economy, but judiciously implemented a budget prepared by previous administration at 80 percent which was commendable.
Speaking on petrol pump price review, Gbajabiamila noted that of government did not take the painful decision, the economy would have further crumbled to a point that government will not be able to pay salaries or perform its statutory responsibilities.
“We are a country now if we did not deregulate, in two months time there will be no country.
The government produced facts and that if we don’t do it now, nobody will be able to pay salaries and I am somebody who listens to fact and figures, I am somebody who listens to evidence. It would have been stupid of me because I had a position ten years ago in the face of new facts, new evidence and situation having changed to say because I opposed I must stay that way maintain the same position,” he pointed out.
He stressed that changing positions is not the mark of a leader and also not the mark of a representative, adding government persuaded the labour union with verifiable fact and that is why the planned strike didn’t work, because members of labour knew that there was no need to strike.
He added that the opposition (PDP) knew that the decision was the only thing the government could do.
Speaking further he said, “Nigeria belongs to OPEC, I did research and found out that all the OPEC members have increased fuel prices to about 40 percent since December.
We are the last to do so and these are countries with 15 to 20 million people while Nigeria has more than 170 million people. Where is the money coming from?”
Nigeria gets its money from crude oil, he said stressing that 10 years ago crude oil was selling over a hundred dollar per barrel and now it is selling at 38 to 50 dollar per barrel.
“So Nigeria is not making money again, there is no dollar coming in, the situation is very critical.
This is what I tell people that if PDP had remained in power, that little money that is coming in now, what do you think they will do to it?”
According to him, Our president is beginning to tighten and change things around to make sure that the little money coming in goes to education, health, others.
Despite the last budget not being his own, he was able to implement it 80 percent more than any sitting president before him, because he is applying the money where it belongs.
We could not implement budgets before because the money was going to private pockets. I know for those who believe in the potential of our country, that this country will bounce back.
It is just the matter of time. You can not assess a sitting president in one or two years.
You can assess his government after four years; our president is doing the right thing.
On late passage of 2016 budget, Gbajabiamila said, “Let me explain the late passing of the budget. There is nowhere in the world, when it comes to budget, there will be always be issues and fighting.
The work of a representative is to attract federal project to his or her constituency. And the only time to fight for it is during budget. And when a budget comes from the executive arm and they say I, Femi Gbajabiamila, cannot have an input in the budget, I will fight it”.
He urged the people to understand that in budget crisis, members are fighting to bring projects to their constituencies and that is all what it is about, insisting that it was a healthy fight and it is for the good of the people we represent.
On security, he said before president Buhari came to power, there was intelligence gathering that Boko Haram was moving southward, but the president and the government have been able to stop that threat.
By the Grace of God we will not have Boko Haram in Lagos, and this government will deal with the ones left in the north, he assured.
He said “The Sambisa forest, we thought nobody could go has already been surrounded. Security is very important and the government is facing it squarely”.
He praised the governor of Lagos state, Akinwumi Ambode for giving Lagos a face lift and above all restructuring critical sectors to be more productive to build a stronger economy.
“We are witnesses to the pace at which the Governor is turning the economy around. We can see the recent MOU signed by Lagos state government for the construction of the longest bridge in sub Sahara Africa.