Nigeria Economy: Where Buhari Got it Wrong By Ayo Kusamotu

THE STATE OF THE NATION

1.The Economy :

The N 500 dollar prediction and preferential pricing

I remember Alhaji Aliko Dangote predicted that the Dollar would hit N500 before the end of the year. With the trend of things, the currency is moving in that direction. Everyone has been asking the CBN to lift the ban on the 41 items but it has refused to listen. The experiment with the floating of the dollar can only be described as such ‘an experiment’. The Central Bank of Nigeria should back track and undo the mistakes . The blind can see [ a paradox of sort] that the economy is in trouble. Do you cut your nose to spite your face? No way. The Nigerian Ports are empty, goods are not coming in, the Nigerian Customs Service is not raising enough revenue. I think that there is no enough planning and research going into the policies. The dollar is scarce simply because Nigeria isn’t generating enough of it . Government should find a way of stopping the arbitrage, don’t sell dollars to ‘anyone even the industrialists at a lower/subsidised price. This only leads to round tripping. What I am saying is that unfair and uncompetitive practices should be abhorred. Monopolies destroy our economy and kills competition.

2.Transparency needed in the war on Corruption :

The War on Corruption

The performance of Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari and the APC will not be judged only on how many corrupt people are sent to jail but rather how well the economy does. On that score, the Government should tell us who has returned monies to Government coffers. Nigerians have a right to know this and I simply can’t understand the turn by our much loved President .It is simply a statement of fact to be made, X amount was collected from X person. There is no defamatory issue here. So on that front, there are serious questions to be asked. What will these monies be used for? For goodness sake, the American Government is confiscating suspected loot of foreign government personnel. This isn’t shrouded in secrecy. The most recent and biggest is that involving the Malaysian President, his son I- law and friends which is in excess of USD 1 Billion. Our President will score points with Nigerians when this is announced. It was not a good move in my view have backed tracked.

3.The Ministers

Three Ministries under one Minister /The President as Minister

One thing I know is that; it makes no sense giving three ministries, the life blood – Housing, Power and Works to one person-the famous Mr Babatunde Fashola. This is never done, has been done and should be reversed. I personally think that there are other capable hands out there. I don’t doubt Mr Babatunde Fashola’s performance in Lagos State, I just know that superman is not human. It will take Superman to run three ministries efficiently. In a country of almost 200 million people, this isn’t satisfactory.

Left to me , the President described as Commander-in-Chief need not be a Minister. It is superfluous. But if His Excellency must, he is better suited as the Minister of Defense and not Minister of Petroleum. However, it is beneath the position of President to appoint himself Minister. All the Ministers report to him, so will he report to himself as Minister? It will only lead to crisis and we are seeing the crisis already.

To be continued …….

Ayo Kusamotu is an international legal practitioner and a politician (a member of the APC) from Ikirun, Osun State.