Ezekwesili knocks Atiku over claims he led Obasanjo’s economic team
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A former Minister of Education under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has given a sharp rebuke to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over claims that he headed the Economic Management Team as vice president under the same regime.
Alhaji Abubakar had tweeted on Monday:
“As head of the economic management team while I was Vice President, I was instrumental in designing a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in several sectors. And we made tremendous progress.”
Reacting to the tweet on her Twitter handle in a thread on Tuesday, Ezekwesili rebuked Atiku for telling an absurd lie as he was “never the Head of the Economic Management Team”.
Dr. Ezekwesili tweeted:
“Dear former Vice President Atiku, please ask the handlers of your Twitter account to stop misleading the public. You were never the Head of the Economic Management Team. This absurd lie does you no good at all. Please ask your team to stop it. Happy New Year. I wish you well.”
As a member of the Economic Management Team then, she further explained:
“There is a difference between the Economic Management Team set up for the first time ever in 2003 by President Obasanjo and the National Economic Council established by the 1999 Constitution as amended; Section 153(1) and Paragraphs 18 & 19 of Part I of the Third Schedule.
“The Presidential Economic Management Team (we called it “The Economic Team” for brevity) was a Technical Team of 12 persons from a range of expertise whom President Obasanjo constituted to drive Nigeria’s Economic Reform Agenda during his 2nd Term in office 2003-2007.”
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According to her, “there is no sincere basis for confusing the work of the Presidential Economic Management Team that I described in the previous tweets with the National Economic Council, provided for in the Constitution and chaired by a Vice President. The functions are not the same at all. None.”
She also reprimanded her critics, urging them not to despise knowledge, otherwise they will be classified along with those teaching her, one of the 12 Economic Management Team members, about its mandate and leadership.
“Become teachable. Don’t despise knowledge,” she admonished. Read more.
