Financial expert, Bismack Rewane, has described the growth that Nigeria’s economy is said to be experiencing as that reminding one of a song by Fela, ’99 standing, 49′ sitting, in which the ledgendary musician refers to the sitting arrangement in the old molue commercial truck.
There are reports that GDP is growing with some other economic indexes said to be showing positivity.
Many people and organisations are, however, surprised that such improvement is not translating to reduction in the actual hardship they are facing.
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Prices are going up, umemployment is worsening while threats of further increases are real.
Commenting on the situation on Friday night when he spoke on Channels Television’s 10 pm news, as monitored by Phenomenal.com.ng, Rewane acknowldeged the contradictions.
He said “There is growth but it is not having impact on people’s welfare. It is like what Fela called ‘Shuffering and smiling’. The fact is that every one per cent of rise in inflation increases unhappinex index by 6 per cent. We need to work on this so that we don’t have a situation of happy staistics and unhappy people.”
While noting that the second quarter winding down bears largely positive outlook, he stressed the need to ted to calm down nerves of the market which, he said, was too Jittery.
He foresees a tough Christmas, that will, however, be slightly better than the the previous year’s.
