Former Central Bank governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has asked President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to stop blaming the past administration for the poor state of the economy.
He said the government should rather begin to think out of the box.
Nigeria would have avoided a recession, he said, adding that one year of the blame game is enough, and that the government should blame its failures instead.
However, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo retorted that the criticism was inevitable because the level of corruption under the past administration had not been experienced in any country in the world.
Both spoke at the 4th lecture series of the Progressive Governors’ Forum in Kaduna yesterday.
Soludo had also scored the economy low saying the Nigeria Capital Market was still in coma with trillions of Naira lost in assets, nominal exchange rate on free-fall with crude capital controls and more than 100 percent of Capital expenditure borrowed.
“Aggregate revenue to the country has imploded while there is import compression and falling customs revenue; income has fallen due to poor tax administration while public sector employees are owed months of salary,” he said.
He also faulted the manner President Buhari is fighting corruption which he said only aims at the symptom and not the ailment.
“I don’t believe the way we are fighting corruption is the way we should go about it. We are only fighting corruption on the surface; we have to fight it from the systemic level.”
But Prof. Osinbajo in his response said the administration was not blaming the past administration for the sake of finger pointing but due to the realities on the ground.
He said the level of corruption that took place during the past administration was to the level that had not been experienced in any country in the world stating that in one sector alone 15 billion dollars was found to have been stolen.
The vice president said in a situation where the external reserve of the country was about 30 billion dollars it was shocking that a whopping 15 billion could be missing in one sector alone.
“Where you find 15 billion dollars stolen in just one sector, you know that it is a major problem in the country where our eternal reserve is 30 billion,” he stated.
Soludo had earlier advised the APC governors on how to tackle the economic challenges facing their states. He stressed that economic growth in Nigeria and the states would not be inclusive if the states do not break the dynasty of poverty, maximize the comparatives and competitive advantage they have.
Soludo noted that 11 States in the North which have the highest rate of population growth and are affected by desertification are the ones suffering from the worst form of poverty in Nigeria.
He said; “55 million people in 11 states are under serious threat (Adamawa; Bauchi; Borno; Gombe; Katsina; Jigawa; Kano; Kebbi; Sokoto; Yobe; Zamfara) and these account for 40% of Nigeria’s land: These are also the POOREST States in Nigeria while crop yields in these states have dropped by 20 percent. The collapse of oil price is a great opportunity and blessing for Nigeria as it offers ample room for the states to improve on their revenue from the less than 5 percent of GDP they currently record.”
He said it would be the first time Nigeria would be expected to transform its economy without external conditionalities.
He recalled that in the previous administrations, economic policies were being monitored and teleguided by the super powers and other multi lateral organizations.
He however said the APC government must have the discipline to see those programmes through.
Soludo said the way out of the poverty cycle for the states will be to develop the education sector so that the children of the poor will be given same opportunity with others to participate in the economy.
He advised the APC governors to move from an election winning coalition that only wanted to grab power to a governing team.
With the control of the federal government and 23 states in the country the APC has no excuse to fail, he said.
“The APC should go back to its manifesto and instigate framework that will engender the atmosphere for growth as Nigeria cannot develop with the current structure where institutions are created only to share from the federation account,” he added.
“APC needs to come clean with Nigeria, explain to Nigeria’s the agenda and steps it intends to take within the time line to get there. Be the change that we want to see. When we communicate change, symbolism is important. Nigerians have given you a mandate of change, now deliver the change that you promised,” he stated.
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai in his welcome address noted that Nigeria is facing economic crisis saying the problems are due to past and present missteps adding that Nigeria needs a fundamental shift from how things were done in the past.
