Paragraph by paragraph summary of Finance Ministry Rebuttal of Soludo’s Article (for the lazy readers)

1. Soludo's article reflected the thoughts of an embittered loser. It misquoted facts and maliciously manipulated statistics; a hatchet job!

2. Soludo wrote to please certain past leaders

3. Soludo mismanaged the banking sector, hence had no moral platform to write about mismanagement (pots shouldn't be slurring kettles)

4&5. Bank consolidation was a brilliant idea, but Soludo mismanaged it by poor regulation and supervision

6. Soludo's was to close to the bankers, and couldn't stop them from accumulating huge bad debts. This made them ill-prepare for the financial crisis

7,8,& 9. The bank couldn't cope. Sanusi transferred the bad debts to AMCON. The total was about N5.67 trillion

10. Listen! This N5.67 trillion makes up the bulk of 'contingent liability' which Soludo is holding the current administration liable for

11. Such (3-9) can only happen in Nigeria!

12. Now let's deal with the other issues

13. Too much flying puts Soludo out of touch with ground facts

14. Because oil price has fallen, and government has imposed austerity measure, suddenly every charlatan wants to attack the economy and the
executives

15. Indeed economy grew well during Obj second term, but it was because of the performance of then Finance Minister who brokered debt relieve, and she is still here!

16. Check GEJ records. When global GDP growth was about 3%, Nigeria was posting 6%!

17. Bulk of the growth was not from oil, but from Agric, Manufacturing, Nollywood, etc. It is working. Transformation = Diversification.

18. We have tamed inflation, Soludo could not!

19,20 & 21. He left inflation at 13%, we have brought it down to 8%. We also stabilized the exchange rate btw 2011 - 2014. Only fall in oil price, which affected reserves has made the exch rate now volatile.

22. We are putting measure in place to manage the drop in oil price.

23 & 24. A careless remark once made by Soludo (CEA - Chief Economic Adviser) also caused Naira to free-fall in 2003. Even Obj and CBN Governor then could not halt the fall

25. We are not making excuses, but lower production, theft and refusal to save in Excess Crude Account is responsible for lower foriegn reserve. Soludo lied; Obj produced more oil than we have now.

26. Pipeline vandalism is also causing lower production of oil

27. But the main problem is that Governors want the money in ECA shared! They have taken FG to Supreme Court due to this.

28 & 29. Soludo deliberately used NBS 2011 statistics to say 71 percent of Nigerians live below poverty line. The World Bank 2014 report says
between 2010/11 and 2012/13 poor Nigerian is dropped from 35.2% to 33.1%

30. But the NBS record was is wrong because, NBS under Soludo supervision did not use international measurement. Why not use updated data now?

31 & 32. We have unemployment problem. The CEA and NBS determine how many jobs we need to create annually so that we can measure progress. Why didn't Soludo do this when he was CEA?

33. We need to create 1.8 million job every year

34. We are creating 1.4 milion yearly in Agric, Housing, Manufacturing, Financial Services, and Creative Industries (aka Nollywood)

35 - 39. We have other special programs like Nagropreneurs, YOUWIN, Graduate Internship Program, Sure-P intervention.

40. Our debt profile increased because in 2010, government increased wages of Federal workers by 57%! Where was Soludo then? Did he allow this to happen because he wanted to prepare ground for political career by wooing organized labour?

41. Since 2011, approach to debt has changed. We have lowest number of debt to GDP ratio at 12.51%. Borrowing has reduced in 2014 even with our larger GDP. We will only borrow modestly to help us whether the present situation. We have made plans to generate more non-oil revenue and cut cost of governance. Soludo doesn't know what he's talking about saying we are reckless with debt.

42 Soludo is ignorant of what GEJ has achieved. Here are verifiable ones

43. 22 Airport refurbished, 5 new Int'l Airport terminal under construction.

44. Various roads and bridges projects completed. Some are under construction. Functional rail between Lagos-Kano, P/H to Maiduguri. Power privatization, and gas infrastructure development

45. In Agric 6 million farmer access farm input through e-wallet, up from 403,222 in 2011. Paddy rice production in Nigeria is first in history adding about 7 million MT to rice production. Addition 1.2 million MT of Cassava. Food price no longer rise as fast as before.

46. A wholesale mortgage provider is now in place.

47. Manufacturing is revived with auto policy. Nigeria also export 39,000 MT of petrochemical, sugar, textile, cement etc

48. Nollywood account for 1.4% of GDP. The present administration is the first to support Nollywood with grants. Upcoming Development Bank will support SME with 5-10 year loan at affordable rate.

49. Government started these before oil price fell; this year will be difficult, more money in ECA could have helped, but we can rise to the challenge.

50. GEJ and the Economic Team see the crisis as opportunity to diversify revenue of a diversifying economy. Soludo is wrong; rebasing is, at least, good for policy making.

51. Soludo say we are not talking about Economic Partnership Agreement with EU. Too much flying makes Soludo ignorant; Nigeria has not signed and does not proposed to sign the EPA in current form! Government policy has worldwide acclaim.

52. Soludo can regain respect by returning to professionalism! Other people he referenced will take it up with him. He failed managing the banking sector, he was rejected by the electorates, and now he's out of touch with Nigeria economy.


End of Summary


Original source:

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/175796-okonjo-iweala-attacks-soludo-says-hes-nigerias-worst-cbn-governor-ever.html

Personally the image I have of Soludo as the Banking Consolidation genius wont change, neither will my respect for Ngozi Iweala Nigeria's best finance minister wane.

I think these two should find a way to work together (again) for the good of the land.

supported

Brilliant! She intellectually took Soludo to the cleaners. One must come to equity with clean hands o. Oga CBN just learnt that in a hard way.
Point 52 is the final nail, blow, kick, straw etc that finished the tatters left of Soludo's reputation.
Enemies who keep undermining the efforts of GEJ to move Nigeria forward.
OP Jah bless you!

nwafuluozoh:
Brilliant! She intellectually took Soludo to the cleaners. One must come to equity with clean hands o. Oga CBN just learnt that in a hard way.
Point 52 is the final nail, blow, kick, straw etc that finished the tatters left of Soludo's reputation.
Enemies who keep undermining the efforts of GEJ to move Nigeria forward.
OP Jah bless you!

Thanks man,

I also believe that Soludo indeed did a hatchet job; he mixed facts with fiction and manipulated data to hit out at GEJ and Obi for not supporting his political ambition in Anambra State. He's better off being professional, vindictiveness won't help him.