Amaechi and Okonjo Differs On the State of the Economy.

Okonjo-Iweala / Credits: file copy RIVERS State Chairman of the and Governor Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, Mr. declared on Thursday that the Nigerian economy had gone comatose. explained that contrary to the rosy Amaechi picture painted on Wednesday by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, about the nation’s economy, Nigeria was battling to survive economically. Okonjo-Iweala had while responding to a call for resignation by the Amaechi-led NGF told her journalists in Abuja, that in spite of the revenue challenges facing the country, all macro-economic indicators showed that the economy was performing “reasonably well.” “The economy is doing reasonably well. It is not perfect but it is doing reasonably well. I say this because actual realities on the ground are bearing this out,” she had said. But at an event organised for future leaders by Rotary International, District 9140 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Amaechi recalled that the minister once disagreed with him when he said that poverty rate in Nigeria had risen to 70 per cent. The governor, who also flayed his Delta State counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s advice that opposition against President Goodluck Jonathan should not come from the South-South, stated that Okonjo-Iweala had insisted that the country’s poverty rate was not 70 per cent, but 68 per cent. He said, “In 1970, the poverty rate in Nigeria was 30 per cent. How many of you know the poverty rate now? I was in a meeting where I said it was 70 per cent; the Minister of Finance said it was 68 per cent. What’s the difference between 68 and 70? “We are giving you a nation that is in a state of coma; that is what we are handing over to you. If it is a nation that is progressing from 30 per cent in 1970, we should be talking about 15 per cent now.” that the Federal explained also Amaechi Government had yet to pay fully the Rivers State allocation for July, 2013. “We (NGF) asked the Minister of Finance to resign if she is not able to man 20th September, 2013