Kale: Economic Recovery is a Gradual Process Obinna Chima The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale yesterday reiterated that economic recovery was a gradual process, stressing that Nigerians would not feel the impact of the country’s exit from the recession overnight. Speaking in an interview
on Arise News Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) boss noted that the first step to come out of an economic recession was to halt the contraction, which the nation
has been able to achieve. After contracting for five consecutive quarters, the Nigerian economy exited the recession in the second quarter of 2017, as data on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate
released by the NBS Tuesday showed that the economy grew at 0.55 per cent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017. However, some Nigerians have continued to criticise the NBS report, saying they were yet to feel the impact of the
economic turnaround. But Kale who took his interviewers on Arise News Channel through reasons why the nation was able to reverse the contraction, however, stressed that the GDP growth attained in the second quarter
South-west Leaders Demand Regionalism… Page 52
was still fragile. According to him, the economy started slowing down from six per cent, before it slumped to five per cent, and continued spiraling downwards. “Nobody was paying attention then. The numbers Continued on page 50
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Alhassan Doubles Down on Comment, Saying Buhari Promised Not to Run in 2019 In visit to State House, says president is not naïve APC chieftain: There’s no alternative to Buhari Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja with agency report With the dust yet to settle over her BBC Hausa Service interview in which she declared her support for former Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Aisha Alhassan, has also revealed that Buhari had told his party members before the 2015 elections that he would only seek one term in office. Alhassan was quoted
in a Reuters interview on Wednesday as saying: “In 2014/2015 he said he was going to run for only one time to clean up the mess that the (previous) PDP government did in Nigeria. And I took him for his word that he is
not contesting in 2019.” She said Buhari made the promise in 2015 to members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but gave no further details. Alhassan, who had also declared her support for
Atiku during a visit to his home during the Sallah break, reiterated her position in the Reuters interview that she would resign if Buhari seeks re-election and would support the former vice-president if he decides to run.
Her visit to Atiku and declaration supporting him went public when a video of the visit went virile, a position she reaffirmed in the BBC interview. Continued on page 12
FORCE OF NATURE... A car flung onto its roof by the force of Hurricane Irma in the French island of St Martin, and boats piled up against the shore in Paraquita Bay as the eye of hurricane passed Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. The Caribbean has felt the full impact of the worst storm to come out of the Atlantic Ocean in history. It is expected to make landfall on the southern part of Florida by Sunday (See story on page 47)