Of Economic Statistics and Development By Lanre Oluwaseun Asiwaju
Last Wednesday, the International Conference Center, Abuja was alive as President Jonathan rolled the carpets to celebrate his “achievements” since assumption of office. The high point of the event was the reeling out of statistics by coordinating minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her colleagues at the federal executive council. First, I state unequivocally that the statistics cited by Okonjo-Iweala were ambiguous and intended to achieve a dubious purpose. In her presentation, she highlighted that Nigeria’s GDP currently grows at 6.5 per cent (NBS) or 7.2 per cent (IMF). However, she forgot to tell us what it was prior to the inception of the GEJ administration in 2011 and what policy of government stimulated this growth. In a data obtained from http://www.tradingeconomics.com , the annual GDP growth rate was 7.67 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 and it steadily increased, hitting an all-time high of 8.60 per cent in December of 2010 and had si...