Jonathan Has No Record Of Good Governance –
Soludo | Central Bank of Nigeria
— Jan 26, 2015 |
A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Prof Charles Soludo, has advised the
presidential flag bearer of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck
Jonathan, to stop campaigning about the record of
the outgoing government, saying it has no
testimonial to parade.
Soludo, a former governorship candidate of the
party in Anambra State, gave this position in a
document entitled ‘Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond
election’, and made available to LEADERSHIP
newspaper.
The document, which emphasized the technocrat-
cum-politician’s passion for the country and
concern about the forthcoming general election,
stressed the need for the country to improve on its
economy especially considering the dwindling
price of crude oil in the international market,
among other economic challenges.
He said, “My advice to President Jonathan and his
handlers is to stop wasting their time trying to
campaign on his job record. Those who have
decided to vote for him will not do so because he
has taken Nigeria to the moon. His record on the
economy is a clear ‘F’ grade.
“As one reviews the laundry list of micro
interventions the government calls its
achievements, one wonders whether such list is all
that the government could deliver with an
unprecedented oil boom and an unprecedented
public debt accumulation. I can clearly see why
reasonable people are worried.
“Everywhere else in the world, government
performance on the economy is measured by some
outcome variables such as: income (GDP growth
rate), stability of prices (inflation and exchange
rate), unemployment rate, poverty rate, etc.
“On all these scores, this government has
performed worse than its immediate predecessor–
Obasanjo regime. If we appropriately adjust for oil
income and debt, then this government is the worst
in our history on the economy. All statistics are
from the National Bureau of Statistics”.
While comparing Jonathan’s administration to that
of former President Olusegun Obasanjo where he
(Soludo) served, he noted that “despite presiding
over the biggest oil boom in our history, it (present
administration) has not added one percentage
point to the growth rate of GDP compared to the
Obasanjo regime especially the 2003- 07 period.
Obasanjo met GDP growth rate at 2% but averaged
7% within 2003- 07.
“ The current government has been stuck at 6%
despite an unprecedented oil boom. Income (GDP)
growth has actually performed worse, and poverty
escalated. This is the only government in our
history where rapidly increasing government
expenditure was associated with increasing
poverty”.
While assessing the economic and development
policies of the two major political parties in the
February election, the ruling PDP and the All
Progressives Congress (APC), he declared that “So
far, neither the APC nor the PDP has a credible
programme for employment and poverty reduction”.
“The APC promises to create 20,000 jobs per state
in the first year, totalling a mere 720,000 jobs. This
sounds like a quota system and for a country
where the new entrants into the labour market per
annum exceed two million. If it was intended as a
joke, APC must please get serious.
“On the other hand, President Jonathan targets two
million jobs per annum but his strategy for doing
so is a Job Board— another committee of sort.
Sorry, Mr. President, a Job Board is not a strategy.
The principal job Nigerians hired you to do for
them is to create jobs for them too. You cannot
outsource that job, Sir. Creating 3 million jobs per
annum under the unfolding crisis would task our
creativity and audacity to the limits”.

You need to read the original document and be wowed.

He made rubbish of our so called "agricultural revolution"

You will always know a brilliant mind when they speak. Let's wait for FFK to attack him.

ramdris:
You will always know a brilliant mind when they speak. Let's wait for FFK to attack him.

FFK ...na his money he dy work 4... Dat guy could be working for APC under and yhu may never know.

We all know... sum people are just deceiving themselves about dis Jona tan of a tin.


Sai Buhari

Thank you so much Prof. Soludo for hitting the nail on the head. The truth must be told, GEJ doest not deserve second term in that office. Our major problems are corruption & indiscipline and GEJ has failed Nigerians woefully.
There should be no excuse for failure.
We need a bold, sincere, trustworthy and a charismatic leader like GMB.

Vote Change!

We want change of un employment, insugency power supply, subsidy and so on

even rat dey want change bcs this time food no dey waste at all and if e drop down ho boy i go take am and chop hoo

if rat dey shout change
i go shout


sai buhari

Even trees, mountains, waters and the soil of our Land are yarning for CHANGE!!!!

Wicked Upper Cut from Soludo.. has the guy joined APC?

the next thing you will hear now is that Soludo does not have any first School leaving Certificate...


anyway, make I dey chop my pop corn dey wait for PDP fani Kayode to respond to this one...

Even his die-hard supporters knows this.
There are two categories of people supporting gej; those supporting him for selfish/personal agenda and those that have been blinded ethnic and tribal sentiments.
Some of them even admits that his government is a failure yet they will still say tje devil is better than the angel you don't know to cover their sorry asses.

Make oga jona just commot first and if buhari doesn't perform he wil end up not gettin a second term its as simple as dat


Second term shld not be a DO OR DIE AFFAIRS
Thanks

soludo should stop yanning rubbish. apc will be worst. we can't allow buhari to rule us again. i don't trust buhari at all. meanwhile, let him show us his certificate.

see u..he wants to be relevant now ...u think we don't know whose script he is acting on .

When Jona refused to back his candidature in 2010 for anambra govt race ...he went screaming .

In 2011 PDP primaries ..he queued behing Atiku , thinking atiku would floor GEJ, but the reverse was the case .

Since then he has gone into oblivion .

feelamong:
Wicked Upper Cut from Soludo.. has the guy joined APC?

the next thing you will hear now is that Soludo does not have any first School leaving Certificate...


anyway, make I dey chop my pop corn dey wait for PDP fani Kayode to respond to this one...

no. the next thing we would hear is that Soludo did not make these statement. and it will be true.

Having read El Rufais 'The Accidental public Servant' I can only conclude that Soludo as brilliant as he is, still feels he is in competition with Okojo-Iweala who even brought him into government in the first place. All he did here is to make it look like Okonjo-Iweala does not know what she is doing not necessarily Jonathan. I dont know why this man likes fighting with women even though I like him. He fought with his sister in law Dora Akunyili until she died..


one of the many lies in this 'notice me' trash is that oil price peaked at about $147 per barrel under Obasanjo and that also shored up the external reserve at that time and the economy was also run by Okonjo Iweala.

This is analysis not sentimental opinon. Jona promised 2m jobs per annum? hmmm. for the past 6 years, how many real (not on the paper) jobs has he created. The once so created, are they paid?

Even PDP suppoters know that GEJ has failed the country and all his rants about how he's developing the country are pure lies.
The wind of change is just blowing everywhere. Febuhari is going to be great....

[b]I therefore pray that Buhari will be magnanimous in victory – if he wins—to put together a ‘team Nigeria’ for the rescue mission.
If Jonathan wins, then God must have been magnanimous to give him a second chance to redeem himself. Most people I know who support Jonathan do so either out of self-interest or fear of the unknown. As a friend summed it: the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. One person assured me that we would see a ‘different Jonathan’ if he wins as he has been rattled by the harsh judgment of history on his presidency so far. I just pray that he is right. In that case, I would just draw the President’s attention to two issues:
First, beside the coterie of clowns who literally make a living with the sing-song of transformation agenda, President Jonathan must know that it remains an empty slogan. His greatest challenge is how to save himself from the stranglehold of his largely provincial palace jesters who tell him he has done better than God, and seek out ‘enemies’ and friends who can help him write his name in history. Propaganda won’t do it.[/b]

World Bank Cuts Nigeria's Poverty Rate to 33.1%, Says North is Poorer



*Predicts 7.4% growth in 2014
James Emejo

The World Bank Tuesday said there had been positive economic trend as well as significant progress made towards poverty eradication in the country.

It said in its second edition of the Nigeria Economic Report (NER) which was launched in Abuja that going by the recent rebasing of the economy as well as analysis from the new General Household Surveys (GHS) conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with the support of the Bank, new poverty estimates in 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 should be within the range of 35.2 per cent and 33.1 per cent respectively.

Although the previous NBS Harmonised Nigeria Living Standards Survey (HNLSS) 2009/2010, which took a larger study sample into account had estimated poverty rate at 62.6 percent, the Breton woods institution said it had strong reasons to believe that "consumption was seriously underestimated in the large HNLSS household survey in 2009/2010."


It stated that an analysis of a panel survey data (GHS) of 5000 households for 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 provided "evidence that consumption is likely higher than previously estimated from the HNLSS survey."


Furthermore, the new GHS analysis put rural poverty at 46.3 per cent and 44.9 per cent in 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 respectively compared to 69.1 per cent and 51.2 per cent respectively in the HNLSS 2009/2010 estimates by the NBS.

The World Bank estimates further suggested that the number of poor Nigerians remained at 58 million adding that more than half of the figure are located in the North- east or North- west.

Specifically, it noted:" Poverty rates range from 16 per cent in the South- West to 52 per cent in the North-East. While the South and North central experienced declines in the poverty rate between 2010/2011 and 2012/2013, the poverty rate increased almost unchanged in the North West."


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/world-bank-cuts-nigerias-poverty-rate-to-33-1-says-north-is-poorer/184259/

While I am wary of Soludo because of the banking rot exposed by Sanusi, this article is a strong message to both the government, and the APC. We indeed going to be facing tough times ahead, and anyone who says different is lying. But it will be better if we have more honest and focused leadership at the helm.

#change
#GMB
#APC

The year is 2015, Soludo should present current data. Don't tell us about poverty in 2010/2011. What are the number for 2014/2015.

Olufonade:
This is analysis not sentimental opinon. Jona promised 2m jobs per annum? hmmm. for the past 6 years, how many real (not on the paper) jobs has he created. The once so created, are they paid?

You sound like someone who thinks that creating jobs means "I have created one position in CBN o come and apply". When you hear a particular number of jobs were created in the US in a particular month you think its Obama by fiat? Government create the atmosphere for both government and mainly private sectors to expand their activities and businesses so that more jobs will become available for citizens. You think it is only jobs advertised by Aso Rock that should be credited to Jonathan or the government? How about the private sectors like manufacturers, telecom, power etc. During Jonathans administration, at least 20 companies/industries were built in Ota Ogun state alone and people were employed. That is how it works even in advanced countries. Infact in countries that run purely capitalist economy, very few core government agencies even employ people. Employments are mainly private sector and government only support them with certain incentives like tax waivers and so on that will make the environment conducive and investment attractive.

Nigeria’s economy outlook growing, says World Bank
Posted by: Nduka Chiejina, Abuja in Featured, News 1 min ago
Nigeria’s short term macroeconomic outlook improved in the first half of this year relative to 2013, according to the World Bank in its new Nigeria Economic Report (NER) launched yesterday in Abuja.
The report states: Revenues to the Federation have increased, foreign reserves have stabilised, the Excess Crude Account (ECA) has been augmented, and prospects for growth are stronger than last year.”
The stabilisation of foreign reserves the World Bank said, “reflects greater confidence among investors. Following a year of decline, foreign reserves stabilised in April-May, in the context of improved confidence of investors.
The precise causes of this stabilization the World Bank noted, will need to be assessed further when more data becomes available. “Yet the partial stabilisation of expectations of investors concerning oil prices, fiscal policy, and the commitment of the Central Bank to defending the exchange rate is clearly important,” said the World Bank.
Expectations about the performance of the oil sector, it said, have improved in general, bolstered by increases in oil revenues accruing to the government.

The World Bank, using the International Labour Organisation (ILO), definition, stated that “unemployment rate in Nigeria, according to a usual ILO definition, is likely lower than 10 per cent.

This, it said, “is the conclusion that comes from unofficial assessments, including that of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and does not contradict the fact that the scarcity of jobs is the number one economic in Nigeria”.
As in many other developing countries, the report noted, “most Nigerians cannot afford to be completely unemployed”. “Those without good productive employment therefore typically engage in various low productivity and low paying tasks for survival.”
Unemployment, the report said, “may be better understood as an underemployment problem corresponding to a scarcity of high productivity jobs, and in many cases of highly qualified candidates to fill those jobs”. “These additional jobs and qualifications need to be created in Nigeria through accelerated private sector growth in the cities and improvements in the country’s education system.”

The re-based GDP estimates reveal a larger, more dynamic and complex economy than did previous statistics, said the report, stresses that macroeconomic risks remain due to uncertainty about future oil output, oil prices and short term capital flows.

The NER analyses new data from household surveys in 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 to reassess poverty and living standards in Nigeria and “concludes that poverty rates in Nigeria are likely significantly lower than previously believed, and progress toward poverty reduction may be stronger”.
According to the report, “poverty reduction in Nigeria appears to be primarily an urban phenomenon, with poverty rates in rural areas higher, and poverty reduction slower”.
While recent panel surveys indicate that the per capita national poverty rate based on the official poverty line may now be as low as 33.1 per cent, a large share of the Nigerian population the report said “is still not far above the poverty line, indicating vulnerability.”

“The combination of the new GDP and poverty estimates is valuable in giving us what we believe to be a clearer picture of development and poverty reduction in Nigeria,” said John Litwack, Lead Economist and Acting Country Manager of the World Bank.
The NER also highlights continuing differences between Nigeria’s regions in poverty reduction. The South and North Central regions show progress in poverty reduction between 2010 and 2013. The North West witnessed little change, and the Northeast experienced an increase in the poverty rate along with a general decline in living standards.

“Improvements in public services, key infrastructure to better connect markets, and measures to increase productivity in agriculture could help put Northern regions on a strong path toward poverty reduction,” said Mr Litwack, lead author of the report, whilst also noting the critical role of security.

In 2013, federation revenues mirrored federal budgetary revenues which also fell short of expectations in 2013, despite coverage by the ECA of a good part of the shortfalls.
The World Bank report noted that “some expenditure items were not fully funded. In particular, the capital budget was significantly underfunded while recurrent expenditures and statutory transfers were almost fully funded. Actual capital spending in 2013 was 60 per cent of planned. The federal budget deficit for 2013 of 738.9 billion Naira was 17 per cent lower than projected and amounted to one percent of (re-based) GDP.”


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nigerias-economy-outlook-growing-says-world-bank