On Nigeria’s economic stability, he said, “The real solution
to our economic crisis is to first and foremost study what brought us here, and
if we fix the problems, the habits, the incompetences, the lack of will that
brought us to where we are, then we have fixed the crisis and we have actually
prepared the way forward Nigeria’s economy so that we don’t keep lurching from
crisis to crisis. which is what we do.
“I recommend the formation of a full time Economic Advisory
Council for the president made up of seven economics. I was very specific, and
I specified the disciplines in economics that those persons must be specialists
in.
“And I talked about fiscal policy, industrial policy, trade
policy, business economics, labour economics, agricultural economics,
development economics, and political economics. It is the combination of these
disciplines that form an economy.
“So, when you are being advised by an economic advisory
council, it should have the capacity internally to take a full spectrum
approach to the economy. And such a council should address the question of how
we structurally diversify our economy away from dependence on oil or
agriculture or any one particular thing.”
He further said, “Nigeria can consider floating or issuing a
20 trillion naira bond to finance some projects in railways in housing in
agriculture that will be nationwide across 36 states using land as a resource
and as the backup for that issue and creating 5 million jobs within three
years, that’s one possibility.
“Another possibility which is not homegrown but it’s also
valid is that we can consider taking a $30 billion IMF stabilisation programme,
and I argued that even though the IMF may be a dirty word in Nigeria but you
are already doing most of the things they want. You are removing subsidies,
people are suffering, there is anger, there is hunger in the land, and you are
not getting any inflows that are significant because there is no confidence.
“Investor confidence has gone from Nigeria and when investor
sentiment disappears, it takes a lot of time, lots of hard work to bring it
back, and so I said you might as well get the cash if you are taking all this
pain.
“And I discussed the pros and the cons of taking an IMF
facility, but for you to take an IMF facility, it must be big fish. If it’s not
a big fish, you are wasting your time. If Nigeria takes anything less than $20
billion, ideally $30 billion, it will be like a drop in the bucket.
“What’s the advantage is that you will get forex liquidity,
you get support for your reserves, you get improved investor sentiment
automatically. If you go to an IMF program, investors will return, because they
know that there is a factor that they trust that is now in play.
“And then third there will be a bit more transparency in our
fiscal management because of the conditionalities that go with that full stop
the cons are of course increasing indebtedness, debt sustainability concerns,
challenges to sovereignty, and the fact that it doesn’t solve the long term
problem, it’s just a short term measure. But you can take it while you are
planning for long term strategically and structurally, which is where we fall
short.”
The Chairman of the Africa Private Sector Summit said
Nigerian leaders should focus on nation building, saying, “Our leaders do not
show the example that the citizens can actually believe in, and that is why
there is no faith in the government, very little trust in the government.
Because it is not do as I say but not as I do, it doesn’t work.
“Nation building begins from the top- the people who lead,
who have been entrusted to lead, must be seen to be not ethnic, not religiously
narrow, they must be seen to be inclusive, they must be seen to be visionary.
And it is that sense of having a vision that they must communicate to the
people and show it by example.
“We have to look at our constitution because we don’t have a
proper federation in Nigeria. So, when you’re talking about building a sense of
nationhood, you must first of all create a sense of fairness, a sense of
equality of opportunity, a sense of common destiny and shared purpose.
“The first place to begin is our constitution because this
country has several hundreds or thousands of ethnic nationalities. But you need
to recognise that reality, and they need to see how they are represented on how
their future is assured in the Nigeria project. Then you know you have a
genuine Nigeria project.”
