Chidi Samuel
Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the former Governor of Nigeria’s Central bank, on Thursday, said President Muhammadu Buhari had worsened the “very bad” economic situation he inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2015.
The former Apex bank Governor made the disclosure at the ‘Big Ideas Podium’, a public policy debate organised by the Afri Heritage Institution in Enugu.
Other speakers at the Big Ideas Podium were a former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke; a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Board, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, and a former Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Osita Ogbu;
Soludo spoke on the theme of the debate, ‘Prognosis of the Nigerian Economy 2017’.
According to him, “Buhari met a very bad situation when he assumed power, but he has made the situation worse. Nigeria today is a fragile state with a failing economy. Some say failing state; some say failed state.”
“The economy is not just in recession; we are suffering from massive economic compression. Saying it is recession trivialises the issue.
“It will be a miracle if after eight years, by the time it leaves office in 2023, the current administration is able to return the economy in dollar terms to the exchange rate it met when it took over.
“The truth is this government inherited a very bad situation, but it has made it very much worse.”
In the words of Soludo, Nigeria, as currently structured, favours only a “privileged few”.
“Nigeria is not working in anybody’s interest except that of the privileged few and because of this, there is an obsession with unnecessary distractions, like which part of the country produces the president. You can have the president, the vice-president and all the ministers from one village and the life of the ordinary people from that village will not move from point A to point B,” he said.
“The north has ruled the country for several years, but poverty, to a very large extent, is a northern problem.
“In the last dispensation, we had Jonathan as president, the finance ministry and almost all the financial institutions of government were headed by Igbos then, but we still don’t have any motorable federal road in Igboland.”
Soludo also encouraged Nigerians to hold its leaders to account and insist that they fulfill all campaign promises made during the last election at all levels during the campaign.
He said, “Only citizens united can rescue Nigeria, not just the government alone. It is a big luxury for anybody to say I am minding my business because what others do will come to mind your own business for you sooner than later.
“We can’t get the leadership that we desire but we can get the leadership that we demand and work for. If only each party or government implements 25 percent of their promises, Nigeria will be a great country.”
He continued, “If you see the governments run by APC, PDP, and APGA, they are all the same because Nigerians don’t hold them accountable. We must resolve as citizens not to let government off again; peaceful agitation must be encouraged and tolerated in this country. Everybody must be allowed to have a voice.
“For example, the APC promised us that they were going to restructure Nigeria; before the elections, they said the current structure was not working, they said that Nigeria was becoming a failed state; but now, they are in power and they are not getting it done.
“Unless we citizens rise up and tell the government ‘deliver on what you promised’, they will not get it done.”