Tag: defends

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday faulted the call for the arrest of the former Head of State and its National Leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

The party said it is not surprised by Oritsejafor’s call, alleging that the CAN boss is working for President Goodluck Jonathan to achieve his 2015 presidential ambition.

It said Buhari has never supported the activities of the Boko Haram sect and that he has always condemned the killings by the sect.

A statement issued in Abuja by the CPC National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, said: “Our attention has been drawn to the recent call by Pastor Ayodele Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), for the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) – the National Leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – on account of his recent commentaries on national issues. “We are aware that this is a rehash of the stance of Pastor Oritsejafor to a previous piece of mendacious writing by Dr. Reuben Abati in his column in The Guardian, wherein he alluded to GMB as being responsible for post-election violence in some parts of the North in April 2011.

“The subsequent libel suit instituted by GMB revealed that Abati had no shred of evidence for his reckless surmising. Meanwhile, Pastor Oritsejafor had used the platform of CAN to impetuously seek the arrest of GMB based on fiction and orchestrated literary violence by the PDP-led Federal Government. The subsequent appointment of Dr. Abati as the Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Media and Publicity revealed the fitting reward for that hatchet job. We have also noted the physical presence of President Jonathan at the ceremony where Pastor Oritsejafor was presented a gift of Bombardier Jet on November 10, 2012.

“The kernel of the latest orchestrated distortion of GMB’s recent commentaries was done to blacken him as supporting the insurgency of Boko Haram in Nigeria. In fact, Pastor Oritsejafor impudently asserted:

‘He is, therefore, the prime leader of this religious and blood thirsty sect called Boko Haram, a movement that is based on a warped interpretation of a strict adherence to force people of other religions into Islam. This kind of fundamentalism is the driving force behind his failure of each election in the country.’

“It is our view that this statement is utterly tendentious and unsupportable by incontrovertible facts. We are aware that as it was before and after the 2011 elections, Pastor Oritsejafor is keen on helping the electoral fortunes of his friend, President Jonathan. We are therefore compelled to re-tell GMB’s uncompromising stand on Boko Haram.

In an interview in June 2012, this is what GMB said on Boko Haram:

‘When we knew who was Maitatsine, wasn’t he arrested, killed and his corpse shown to everybody? But this Boko Haram, if you could recall somebody recommended me to represent Boko Haram. I told them the honest truth that I didn’t know who their leadership was and I still don’t know who their leaders are. I don’t know their philosophy because no religion advocates hurting the innocent. So, all those people giving it a religious meaning are wrong. You can’t kill a person and say Allahu Akbar (God is great). It is either you don’t know what you are saying or you don’t believe in it. It is one of the two.’

“On the December 25, 2012 (Christmas day), bombings that took place at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State; Jos, Plateau State; and Damaturu, Yobe State, this is what GMB said.”

Interest rates have brought stability to the economy even as inflation pressures have eased, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has said. Inflation above 12 per cent “is a problem” for economic growth, Sanusi said in Bloomberg interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.

Consumer-price growth may be close to 10 per cent in January, though keeping it at less than that for the rest of the year “will be very difficult,” he said.

He said: “High rates have delivered stable exchange rates, an increase in reserves, and stable inflation.I don’t think we should take that for granted.”

The Monetary Policy Committee, last Monday, left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 12 per cent for an eighth consecutive meeting.

He said that while inflation eased to 12 per cent in December, it remains above the central bank’s goal of below 10 per cent. “It’s natural that the Ministry of Finance will want to see lower rates of interest because of the huge cost of debt and it’s also natural that the private sector will complain about the rates of interest because of high borrowing costs,” Sanusi said.

“But higher rates of interest are the price you pay for a high inflation environment.” The outlook for inflation is “pretty good” and the average for the rate this year will be lower than the 12.24 per cent recorded in 2012, Sanusi added.

The CBN pegs the naira at about three per cent above or below 155 per dollar by selling foreign currency at twice-weekly auctions. “The CBN will hold off on lowering borrowing costs while it monitors government spending “and until we actually believe that inflation is coming down and lowering rates will not in any way undermine the tremendous achievements we’ve had,” Sanusi said.

High interest rates have fueled foreign investment in Nigeria’s stocks and bonds, increasing the risk to the economy if inflows reverse. Short-term inflows are “less than 20 percent of reserves,” Sanusi said. “We have enough at any point in time to fund any outflows of portfolios. It’s something that, if it continues too long, it will be a source of concern, but at the moment, it’s not.”

He said the economy will probably expand by about seven per cent this year and cited figures from the statistics agency. The government’s budget predicts a growth of 6.5 per cent.