Recession: Here is how Peter Obi says Nigeria can get out of current Economic mess

Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi has cautioned the Federal Government on the urgent need to cut unnecessary spending on its budget and shift to production-based expenditure to salvage the hemorrhaging Nigerian economy.

Obi said the current recession would be more brutal than the one Nigeria experienced in 2016 because the Goodluck Jonathan administration failed to wisely invest the debt raised at the time. He, therefore, advised the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to focus on improving monetary and fiscal policies.

“What we need now is to go into a vigorous regime of formulating implementable and measurable monetary and fiscal policies to drive ourselves out of the present situation,” Obi said on Sunday during an interview on Channels TV and further buttressed the point in some Twitter posts.

For Nigeria to pull itself out of this economic recession, the 2nd in the last 5 years, there's a compelling need to cut the pork out of the budget and expenditure at all levels of govt and redirect the economy from a wasteful consumption-based one to a productive economy. -PO

— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) November 22, 2020

The poverty rate in Nigeria should worry every concerned leader because there couldn’t be national growth under this situation. https://t.co/KsDdwMS0qo

— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) November 17, 2020

As a result of the economic fall out induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria officially slipped into a recession over the weekend as its economy contracted by 3.62%.

The quarter three (Q3) 2020 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday, Nov. 21, showed that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms declined by -3.62% (year-on-year), making it the second consecutive contraction from -6.10% recorded in the second quarter of the year.