Buhari not hater of women – Finance Minister, Adeosun

 

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Friday maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari is not a hater of women, stressing that it is obvious the President has women in his team.
The Minister made the remark against the backdrop of Buhari’s recent statement on the role of his wife.
Recall that Mrs Buhari had told the BBC that those who did nothing for the emergence of her husband as President are now in power 

But the President in his reaction, said his wife belongs to his kitchen and the other room.
Speaking with BBC, however, the Finance Minster said the fact that the President “appointed women into very senior positions” is an indication that he is a “misogynist.”
She also disclosed that the current administration pumped N720bn into the economy in the last four months.

According to Adeosun, “I think the fact that he has appointed women into very senior positions says his view about women. I work with him very closely and I don’t see any misogynistic tendencies in him; in fact if for anything, I think he is very much in favour of women.”

On the issue of recession, she said, “We have released about N720 billion in about four months and that is the highest ever and we are still going to do more in investing in infrastructure because that is what has held Nigeria back.

“For a number of years and almost for a whole generation we were moving in the wrong direction depending on oil, we didn’t invest in infrastructure. And everyone has known about the power challenges in Nigeria, the road challenges, the health challenges and the only thing that was just keeping us up was the high oil price and the high oil price has been stripped away and we have been laid bare, so it is going to take a bit of time to recover.”
Dismissing dates attributed to her on when the nation woild come out of recession, the Minister said, “I didn’t say six months, I have refused to give a date and what I have said consistently is that we have to invest in infrastructure to get growth back again. Who is going to predict when we are going to come out of recession? It is a function of many things. It is a function of global oil prices and how the economy responds to the spending stimulus. What we have said consistently is that if we stick to the plan that growth will return.
“We are doing the Affordable Housing Programme and the contractors have just moved to site this week and that is aimed at addressing the cost of living issue.
“We understand the peoples pain and what we are trying to do is spend our money in a way that addresses that pain.”