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Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of
Finance and Prof. Charles Soludo, former CBN Governor
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Some
economists in the country have said the Minister of Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, and a former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof. Charles
Soludo, who have been blaming each other over the nation’s poor economy, are
both guilty of contributing to the present poor performance of the economy.
Recently,
Soludo had insisted in a series of articles that the President Goodluck
Jonathan administration performed woefully in its handling of the nation’s
economy. In reaction, Okonjo-Iweala described the five-year tenure of the
ex-CBN boss as a failure and a disaster to the banking sector.
SUNDAY PUNCH interviewed four experts. Here’s excerpts of what the newspaper gathered:
A
renowned economist, Henry Boyo, said that neither the former CBN governor nor
the current finance minister could be excused from the present poor state of
the economy.
“Soludo
took everyone for a ride and you did not know. Okonjo-Iweala took everyone for
a ride and you did not know. Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo are both guilty of
mismanaging the economy during their tenures. Soludo and (Lamido) Sanusi
existed together in the same cabinet. Soludo and Sanusi remained as promoters
of a system that ensured that Nigeria kept foreign money it didn’t need.
“Sanusi
once confessed that the government/CBN had been keeping deposits for free in
banks and borrowing this money at 14 or 15 per cent interest rate. Soludo,
Sanusi and Okonjo-Iweala are all aware of this practice that has been going on
for years. Till now, the CBN is still borrowing money it doesn’t need from
banks at 14-15 per cent interest rate,” he said.
According
to Boyo, the Federal Government and the CBN should be held responsible for the
depreciation of the Naira, accusing it of deliberately devaluing the currency.
“The
CBN is deliberately killing the Naira. It deliberately creates a scarcity of
the dollar while simultaneously creating a huge sum of Naira in the market. Why
will the Naira not depreciate? And what do you think they do when they say they
have excess liquidity - is that not surplus money in the market? And when they
catch the dollar and start selling 100 dollars, 200 dollars a week, are they
not rationing the dollar?
“Therefore,
they juxtapose a rationed dollar against surplus Naira in the market. When you
go to the market every day, if tomato is scarce in the market, you pay more
Naira but when tomato is cheap you pay less Naira. The same thing is done with
the dollar. When dollar is scarce in the market you pay more Naira,” the
economist added.
Expressing
a similar view, a professor of Economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, urged Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo
to stop pointing the finger at each other.
“For
the fact that it is the same government that has been in charge of the economy
for the past 16 years and we are in the current situation where things are not
looking good enough, I think the present administration has not managed the
economy properly. But be that as it may, Soludo was also part of the same
government he is accusing. To revamp the economy, the Federal Government and
its economic team must focus on diversifying the economy and not on crude oil,”
Tella said.
Another
economic expert, Dr. Ayo Teriba, told our correspondent that Soludo’s article
was unnecessary, saying what the nation needed were solutions to its present
economic woes.
“I
think that the Federal Government should have been a bit more aggressive in
taxing articles of luxury and articles of ostentation rather than coming up
with a measure to cut spending. I think that three weeks before the
presidential election, all Nigerians should be concerned about how to solve the
problems that are currently facing the country.
“Most
of the problems are not man-made. The current economic situation shouldn’t be
an opportunity to blame ourselves or to compare the past with the present.
Rather, we should find ways the country can rise up to the challenges it is
facing,” he said.
In
his view, an associate professor of economics at the University of Lagos, Lagos
State, Dr. Olukemi Lawanson, noted that the government’s economic team was slow
in responding to the poor state of the economy.
“I
think the government ought to have put in place the austerity measures even
long before now, given the way the economy has been receding, coupled with the
high rate of corruption, high inflation rate, high unemployment rate and now
the depreciation of the Naira. The economy is surely in for a hard time, it is
better we begin the austerity measures,” Lawanson said.
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