Nigeria is broke – Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture-Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government says it has to take painful decisions and make tough adjustments because Nigeria is broke.

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said while briefing journalists after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting that the decision to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit from N86 to N145 per litre was one of those decisions.

The minister likened Nigeria’s situation to a case of a person, who got a pay cut and had to adjust to the current reality in terms of his spending.
 The minister said, “The current problem is not really about subsidy removal. It is about (the fact) that Nigeria is broke. Pure and simple!

“It is like somebody who has been earning N100,000 a month and he is faced with a situation where his employer says henceforth, he will be earning N10,000 a month. He would need to make some very painful decisions and some very painful adjustments.”

Mohammed’s comments came the same day the Nigeria Labour Congress started a strike to protest against the hike in fuel price.

The government had ordered workers to shun the strike, warning that they won’t get paid if they stayed away from work, especially as labour did not give it the required warning notice and the National Industrial Court had called for the suspension of the strike.

The FG followed the warning on Wednesday by directing permanent secretaries to ensure that all civil servants complied with the directive to report punctually to work daily and shun the strike.

A statement by the Director of Communications in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Haruna Imrana, said the directive was “in response to the pronouncement by the TUC calling off the industrial action” over the increase in the price of petrol.

Source: Punch Newspaper