THE PATH TOWARDS ECONOMIC RECOVERY
BY: ORIMOLOYE, Ifeoluwa


The harsh economic realities staring us in the face has brought oldies like Ilu le by Dr. Victor Olaiya into “another round” of prominence. In fact, I do not subscribe to the fact that we have a finance ministry in this country, not anymore. It seems the only functional departments in Nigeria is the EFCC, JUDICIARY, INEC and THE REST…I hold firm to the believe that during the last dispensation, we suffered for the incompetence of someone who not only occupied a sensitive position, but someone whose level of competence dictated the direction in which the country was governed for a period of six years. Although, I had no confidence in this leader, yet, I had a lot of confidence in some individuals that surrounded him for, at least, I can boast of the former minister of Agriculture, Dr. Femi Adesina, who now occupies the position of the President of African Development Bank. He remains a reference point and a yardstick with which one can measure the level of competence expected of future cabinet ministers, likewise Dr. (Mrs) Okonjo Iweala. These individuals are products of the last administration.
On the other hand, a competent leader who is surrounded by an assembly of incompetent people will not have the incompetent people to blame but himself, because the leader’s image, and not just that of the cabinet members suffers the damage arising from the success or failure of the administration, that is why we say for an instance, that the Jonathan’s administration was corrupt not just because Jonathan himself is corrupt, but for the number of corrupt individuals occupying the cabinet. Synonymously, that statement applies to the personalities that characterizes the present federal cabinet. When observed critically, one is forced to believe that these individuals were selected based on political preferences as opposed to merit. Thus, what we are currently experiencing in the country can be likened to a situation in which par-adventure, someone, somewhere unexpectedly finds herself in a position such as the minister of a sensitive department such as the finance ministry, having served as the commissioner for finance of a state. That kind of scenario serves a pointer to the fact that the present economic mess might be just a tip of the iceberg. In this respect, I will, for the very first time agree with the distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, who recently called for the resignation of the finance minister and I must add ‘dinolistically’ or daringly speaking that when you remove certain heinous act from that particular senator (who called for our finance minister’s resignation), you will be left with common sense, in high proportion. Of a truth, the economy of a unitary state like Nigeria may be too diverse for Nigeria’s finance minister whose scope might be limited to the experience gained from the position of the commissioner of a state.
However, before we call for the finance minister’s head, maybe we should offer pieces of advice to the seemingly muddled woman, as such, I will start as a matter of urgency with the increased rate of hardship ravaging the land. With respect to this, I have heard economic experts talk about the need for palliative measures. Obviously, I may be forced to believe that the present administration has completely forgotten that one cannot cure the ravaging hardship with an anti-graft war. Although commendable, the anti-graft war cannot be made to overshadow or substitute the palliative which is the urgent requirement for the survival of the economy. One is of high priority than the other, and to me, the palliative measures should come first, else, the mortality rate obtained singularly from this hardship might overtime accumulate unprecedentedly and may be next to the number causalities obtained from an insurgency. The palliative measure should not just involve the much emphasized ‘technical’ injection of capitals but the practical injection of funds into strategic areas within the economy, the ‘technical’ language being the usual announcements that characterizes each fictional-disbursement of funds into the economy. The palliative measures I am referring to, in this case extends to the increase in the minimum wage to douse the effects of inflation.
Also, the economy of Nigeria has been unstable for a long time, and from my appraisal, it hasn’t been rosy, but we have always been managing it, but as it is, there is a need to invite real economic managers, regardless of party affiliations, and assign them to the duties of turning our predicament to fortunes. These individuals of vast and an unlimited experience are not deficient in our society and in addition, they are of clean records. I also subscribe to Prof. Soyinka’s call for an economic submit, in fact this has been his lead statement since the drastic reduction of the general price of fuel at the world market, but the incumbent government has been defiant about it. However, this is another great step towards towing the path of economic recovery.
The final step towards economic recovery asides economic submit, economic/political restructuring is the personality handling the finance ministry and I must say that I have no confidence in her ability to reposition the economy.

Everybody is talking but we need to do more than what most people are suggesting.

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Standing5:
Everybody is talking but we need to do more than what most people are suggesting.

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