Nigeria's Minister of information and culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, has dismissed claims that the administration of Muhammadu Buhari had no clear economic policy, expressing optimism that the government's policies would take the nation out of its current economic difficulties.

The Minister gave the government's position on Monday on Channels Television's programme, Sunrise Daily.

He said: "The Federal Government has a very clear policy on the economy despite the challenging outlook. "There is hope and this government is determined to take the country out of its current economic difficulties.

"Although the price of crude oil is recovering slowly, we have learnt our lessons and we are not going to depend solely on crude again, as the mainstay of the economy," he stressed.

Outlining the government's policy, Mr Mohammed said the budget that is yet to be passed by the National Assembly would put money back in the economy to stimulate it. "Our fiscal policy is very clear. We are going to have a budget stimulus which will put money back in the economy.

"Our economic plan is to ensure that more money is put into infrastructure and at the same time that we provide infrastructure that will stimulate diversification into other areas - agriculture, solid minerals and manufacturing.

"Anybody who studies our budget will see clearly where the government is going," the Minister stated. He said reports that the government had lost control of the economy were false.

"This government is going to steer the country out of its economic depression and that is why our budget concentrated more on capital projects which can reflate the economy. "We have made provision for massive social intervention. We have put aside 500 billion Naira for artisan, market women, traders and other people to become self-reliant.

"We have made provision for 500,000 unemployed graduates to be trained as teachers. "It is not true therefore to say that the government does not have a clear plan to fix the economy," he told Channels Television.

Exporter Of Refined Products

On the current crisis in the petroleum sector and what the government was doing to end the scarcity of petrol, the Minister said that the solution to the fuel scarcity or insufficiency of the product was to make Nigeria completely self-sufficient in refined product.

"One of the policies of this government is to ensure that by 2018, we will not be importing refined products. We hope that by 2018 the country will become a net exporter of refined products. "This particular fuel scarcity is as a result of union action and has nothing to do with lack of product.

"We believe that we do not need to employ tactics that will become counter-productive to the same people we are trying to protect," he stated. On fuel subsidy and implementation, the Minister said that the government had reiterated that with the low price of crude, there was no subsidy in the pump price.

"The government is looking at the template to eliminate corruption so that when the price of crude goes up, we will still be able to sell at the same level. "The government is not concentrating on the issue of subsidy, rather it is more concerned about ridding the entire industry of corruption and inefficiency and getting a more market-base price."

On the near total blackout experienced in the nation, the Minister said that the unfortunate situation in the power sector in the last couple of months was a combination of sabotage and vandalism. "You cannot hold the government fully responsible for some of the actions that have led to the poor power supply.

"Nigerians must come to grips with the fact that the power sector has been privatised. We have sold the right to distribute and market forces will determine a lot of things. "We must understand that with privatisation of power sector we must take into cognisance that all government does now is to regulate the industry," he stressed.

Mr Mohammed urged Nigerians to be more critical of saboteurs and vandals, as they of the government. "It will be better for everybody. If Nigerians will condemn vandals it will help reduce the occurrence," he added.