National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The Director, Media and Publicity, All Progressives Congress, Bayo Onanuga, has said the campaign mantra of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, which promises to move Nigeria from an economy of consumption to that of production is self-contradictory and meaningless.
According to him, a vibrant economy will ride on the twin horses of consumption and production, adding that both cannot do without each other.
He said this in an article titled, ‘No Peter Obi, You Cannot Shift Emphasis From Consumption To Production,’ on Friday.
He said, “One of the mantras often mouthed by Mr. Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, is the promise to “shift emphasis from consumption to production”. In his manifesto, he says he will do this by running a production-centered economy that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialisation.
“I doubt if Peter Obi and his moronic followers have ever for one second reflected on this mantra as it is self-contradictory and meaningless.
“A vibrant economy will ride on the twin horses of consumption and production. It cannot do without one, for it is basic economics 101 to know that production happens in expectation of consumption.
“Both concepts are natural corollaries, consumption following production.
“What I guess Obi means is that he will shift emphasis from ‘import dependency’ to local production of goods.
“One of the drawbacks of our economy for decades has been the unbridled appetite of Nigerians for foreign goods, leading to the clogging of our ports with containers.
“This has been the business of Peter Obi himself for decades, importing and warehousing cheap items, including toothpick for the local market and for his NEXT malls.
“He made fortunes and billions out of this business, which only portrays him as a saboteur of the efforts to diversify the national economy and create more local jobs.
“Are Obi and his fellow merchants not aware that when they import items for sale, they are not helping Nigeria, but only helping to create more jobs in the country where they import from?
“Nigerians should not be fooled by this demagogue called Peter Obi. His promise sounds flowery, but it is fatal and hollow.”
(punch)
