Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spin doctor, said this evening that the recession afflicting the economy was “over-hyped” by the media.
Shehu was speaking on Channels TV’s “Politics Today” programme and if viewers thought his description of the economic hardship that has enveloped Nigeria was downright insensitive, his attempt at clarification was even worse. He said recessions were “normal” and people should stop carrying on like “we’ve never had recessions” before.
What Shehu failed to tell viewers was that what he called “normal” is an economic crisis the country has not witnessed in over two decades.
He then predicted confidently that the economy should climb out of recession by the end of the year.
Shehu’s comments come on the heels of Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun saying “recession is just a word”. Bayo Onanuga, the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, has also been in denial, posting on Facebook that reports of hardship in the media were “mere propaganda” and “over-sensationalization”.
