Femi Adesina on unemployment: Cut Nigeria some slack, things are looking up

Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, says Nigeria should be given some credit because things are looking up for the country.

Commenting on Nigeria’s 2020 unemployment figures on Sunday when he featured on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’, Adesina said it is typical of Nigerians to focus on only the negatives and pay little attention to the positives.

According to the Q4 unemployment report released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s unemployment rate hit 33.3 percent — the highest ever recorded.

He stressed that there are also some positives in Nigeria’s economy depending on what aspect is being focused on.

“In any country in the world, if you want to focus on the negatives, they’ll be more than enough for you to see and talk about. But then there are always silver linings in the sky from time to time. It is typical of Nigerians that are when those silver linings come, we don’t talk about them,” he said.

“When the inflation dropped to about 11 percent a couple of years back, we didn’t hear a sound about it. When we went into recession and came out, not much about it.

“When you hear that our budget performance was about 90 percent, not much about it. All that we hear are just the negatives. Let’s realize that in Nigeria, there are positives. In the economy, security, there are positives. It depends on the one we want to focus on.”

Adesina said the economy of several countries, including Britain, has been affected by the pandemic.

He urged Nigerians to cut the economy some slack as it is making progress no matter how slow.

“Did you also see the statistics that Britain has had its worst economic performance in 200 years? Did you see that Britain has borrowed more than ever in the country’s history? It’s because of challenges and the pandemic which is global,” he said.

“Did you see the report of that quarter that Nigeria came out of recession? Let us cut some slack, give Nigeria some credit. Cut Nigeria some slack on these things. We are making progress. It may be slower than we want but things are looking up. It’s not all gloomy.”