Barely two weeks after the prestigious Yale University’ awarded Dr of Humane Letters to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for her economic transformation of Nigeria among other achievements, another ‘prestigious’ American institution, the CNN, announced somewhat gleefully, that the economy of the same country had shut down. Makes you question not only the claims, but the agenda of these American institutions.
Part of the citation of Dr Okonjo-Iweala— for those who missed it—reads “Shaped by the challenging experiences of your childhood in Nigeria, you have made economic reform your mission.
As the Nigerian Co-ordinating Minister for Economic Development and Minister of Finance, you have tackled corruption and created a vision and plan for long term economic stability and worked to build a culture of transparency. With wisdom, a fierce dedication to doing what is right, and unflagging energy, you have transformed the economic landscape of your country”.
You read the words‘economic stability’, ‘culture of transparency’,‘tackling of corruption’ and wonder what figures Yale University was relying upon for the assertions. Or more to the point, which country was it referring to? One Sunday Iwalaiye, who must feel as you do, decided to petition the university to state that the claims do not represent the situation on the ground.
He claimed in the petition, that ‘there is no evidence of economic transformation’, that our foreign reserves and excess crude oil accounts have been seriously depleted’, that ‘the Naira has crashed to its lowest ever’, that ‘the culture of official corruption, and State resource mismanagement were honoured, celebrated, protected and defended under her leadership’. He concluded by saying ‘to give her an award, is a slap on 180 million Nigerians’. It is alleged that he had, as at the time of writing this, gotten over 2000 signatures.
A week after the Okonjo-Iweala award, the Vice President elect, Prof Osinbajo gave his own chilling account of the state of the economy at a two-day workshop. Among his many assertions were (1) 110 million Nigerians were feeling the pangs of poverty. (2) 60 billion US dollar debt would be inherited by the new administration. (3) 21% of this year’s budget (about 953 billion Naira) will be used to service debts.
(4) Two-thirds of the states including the Federal Government, can’t pay salaries. His damning conclusion was that our economy was perhaps at its worst in the history of the nation. Dr Okonjo-Iweala herself has not been quiet in defending her stewardship. It started with her robust defence of Prof Soludo’s scathing commentary on the handling of the economy under her watch. Of late, she has been telling whoever cares to listen that a lot has been achieved which ‘nobody can wish away’.
Part of her stated achievements include (1) creating 1.4 million jobs a year. (2) Setting up a Mortgage Finance Institution to ease home ownership. (3) Creating an Industrial Bank to help SMEs (4) Identifying and empowering a class of entrepreneurs. (5) Financing and constructing better network of roads. And (6) maintaining economic stability in the face of dwindling oil revenue. Her verdict? The economy has fared well under her watch.
What we the people however see are private jets parked at the Abuja and Lagos airports owned by the super-rich; luxury yachts owned by the same set of people, exploring the enchanting islands of Lagos. We see private estates and high rise apartments in expensive areas of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt also owned by the same people. We see private universities dotted all over the country but owned again by the same people. These are clear evidences that the wealth of the nation has been cornered by a select few under the watch of our World Bank executive.
Meanwhile, the rest of the people are struggling hard just to get by. The Channels TV carried a pathetic story last weekend. It was a story of a man whose income averaged500 Naira a day but has to take care of a wife and children in addition to a mother and stepsister and her child. His story, which unfortunately is very common, only became news because two children died of malnutrition.
This is the kind of economy that has been built under the Jonathan administration and supervised by the co-ordinating Minister for the economy. This kind of economy, which has seen a yawning gap between the super rich and the extremely poor, has been supervised by a person whom Yale University said has ‘made social and economic reform her mission’.
To get a sense of how fragile and how susceptible to shocks our economy that has been ‘made stable’ by Dr Okonjo-Iweala is, we should look at recent events. All hell has broken loose because oil now sells for 60 dollars a barrel. This is from a government that has been talking about diversification of the economy for six years. A government that has been fore-warned that crude oil price was going to drop by no less a country than its biggest customer.
Unfortunately, despite our having a World Bank guru, we didn’t have a dreaming Joseph to prepare us for the lean years – to quote Olusegun Adeniyi—after we had squandered the years of surplus. Yet 60 dollars -a-barrel is in itself higher than what most previous governments ever had! The appetite of this government—from its ten official jets to its billion Naira meal ticket—is just too large.
As I write now (Monday), the country is comatose. We are currently held ransom by oil subsidy corruption, greedy marketers, undisciplined tanker drivers and an inefficient credit administration. As at Monday morning, a litre of petrol was selling for six hundred naira. You can imagine the effect on the economy of a people gasping for air! You can imagine the effect on essential services! You can imagine the effect on those who need urgent medical attention!
You can imagine the effect on livestock especially poultry which needs food, light and water 24/7. You can imagine the effect on the over all morale of the people who already feel short changed by government. Or the country which is losing over a billion Naira a day. Yet in all of this, not a word has been said by the Petroleum Minister, not a word by the Finance Minister and not a word from the President himself who claim rightly, to be in power until May 29.
Last Saturday, Chief Eric Teniola, a friend and colleague sent a text to me. He said; “Na wah o. The country has been shut down. No fuel. No light. No job. No money”. This seems to summarise the injury inflicted on Nigerians by the Jonathan Government which has climaxed in the last month of its administration. The echoes of this period will resound for a long time. What a way for a government to go.
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/what-a-way-to-go/#sthash.AD3hFH49.dpuf
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