The President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s style of governance
is worsening the fragile economy of the country, former Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, declared yesterday.
Although Soludo acknowledged that the All Progressives Congress (APC)
administration inherited a bad situation, he said that the
administration had made the economy several times worse than it met it
two years ago.
By his position, Soludo has joined other citizens who have offered
different perspectives on how the Buhari government can effectively
manage the economy and make governance to have a direct and positive
impact on the citizens.
At a public policy forum organised by the African Heritage Institution,
tagged “Big Ideas Podium” and held in Enugu, Soludo said “Nigeria is
now, some say, a fragile state, some say a failed state.” According to
him, it is not going to be a tea party to come out of the situation
because there has not been a serious commitment to address the problems.
“Nigeria is not just in recession, but in a massive economic
compression; it will be a miracle for the present APC administration to
return this country to the dollar size it met in May 29, 2015, if it
stays for eight years, that’s till 2023.
“It is business as usual, propaganda, lies, double-speak. The current
government is fighting corruption, insecurity, but we say to them,
enough of the blame game.
“They inherited a bad situation but they have made it several times
worse; getting us out here is not a tea party. Nigerians should rise in
unity, it should no longer be ‘let them’; only united citizens can
rescue Nigeria out of this position,” Soludo said.
The CBN ex-boss urged the masses to hold the government to account
for all the promises made before the election. “My idea is that of
citizens united; we won’t get the leadership that we deserve; we won’t
get the leadership that we want; we will get the leadership that we
demand.
“They gave us manifestoes, promised a lot and we said ‘yea’; how many
have gone back to check how far they are delivering on those promises?
If any party implements 25 percent of its manifesto, Nigeria will get
better.
“If you check any state run by APC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or
All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the three parties that have
governors, can you spot any difference in any of those states that will
distinguish one party from another? They are the same.
“APC said in its manifesto that it will restructure Nigeria, that
Nigeria was not one, but after election, has anybody heard about it
(restructuring) again? They control 23 states and the National Assembly,
all they need is one more state to get the required 2/3; so they have
what it takes, but they are not talking about it again.
“If we don’t rise to hold them by the jugular, Nigeria cannot go
anywhere. We have to start preparing for a post-oil economy; insanity is
to repeat the same thing over and over again and expect a different
result.”
Soludo, who also faulted the clamour for Igbo presidency, described
it as an “unnecessary distraction”, stressing that “you could have the
president and his vice as well as all the ministers come from one
village, but the life of all the people in that village will not move
from point A to point B.”
To justify his position, he recalled that during Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration, several members of the economic team, including the
finance minister, deputy senate president, deputy speaker of the House
of Representatives and the secretary to the government of the federation
all came from the South-East, “but there is not one motorable federal
highway in Igbo land.
“We want a new Nigeria where it does not matter where the president
comes from; we want to set a structure where each citizen will work
hard, where security is guaranteed.”
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