Buhari approves convocation of national economic conference

President Buhari has approved the convocation of a national economic conference aimed at rallying the country together to offer solutions to the current economic challenges.

A top government official who pleaded anonymity disclosed this to a group of selected journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

The approval came barely a week after Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, called on the President to summon an emergency economic meeting to chart a course to save the country from further drift.

Soyinka, who made the call when he visited the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja last Thursday, had said experts and consumers should be invited to the meeting.

“The President should call an emergency economic conference, with experts to be invited; consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts, professors, etc. I think we really need an emergency economic conference, a rescue operation bringing as many heads as possible together to plot the way forward,” Soyinka had said.

But the government source said the idea of the economic conference which had tentatively been fixed for March 10 and 11 was first discussed at the 65th National Economic Council meeting held on January 28.

The council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has all state governors and the Central Bank Nigeria Governor, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and some ministers as members.