Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum Prof Ango Abdullahi has waded into ongoing debates about President Muhammadu Buhari's dismal performance in office, declaring emphatically that the country may never really get out of recession under the policies of the present administration. Here are excerpts of the interview....

Many people have been talking about the Nigerian economy, the recession, for instance. What is your assessment of the recession we are said to be in. Are we likely to get out of it soon?

No. My overall assessment or projections about the recession as presently managed or in terms of the proposals that are being made for us to get out of it is that we will never get out of it. It may sound too pessimistic but I cannot see how we will get out of recession with at least two or three of these policies on ground. One, the naira has been so decimated to the point of almost being valueless against currencies which countries we do business with. Let me give you an example. Supposing we want to improve on power, we are going to buy every pin, every screw, and everything else you think of that is associated with power development from outside the country which means that we have to get the naira equivalent to the dollar that you have to have to buy everything that you want to import for infrastructural development in this country. Where are you going to get it with a country where there is hardly any productivity anymore? The country is certainly unproductive. So I was arguing very strongly that one way to get out of recession is to reduce our consumption, particularly consumption of our unproductive public sector because the public sector is unproductive, take it or leave it. They may not like what I say, but it is unproductive. If our public sector had been productive we cannot be where we are in terms of our power supply and social infrastructure. It is not working. The productive areas have been neglected. They say agriculture will be the alternative, but look at the budget in 2016; agriculture was given 1.6 percent as the capital allocation for a sector that still provides 40 to 45 percent of the GDP. In the so-called 2017 budget, the allocation is 1.8 percent. The recommendation of FAO, IMF and other world bodies, developing countries should at least give 20 percent of their budgetary allocations to agriculture. This is what Malaysia did. Malaysia for 10 consecutive years their allocation to agriculture was not less than 15 percent annually and that’s why today when they got their seeds from us, the year they got their palm oil seeds I was just graduating from the University of Ibadan in 1964. Today if you fly over Malaysia you will see nothing except palm grooves. They are the largest producers of palm oil in the world and they are already converting palm oil into diesel. So, I cannot see any action now. I talked about the issue of salary.

The country must save from its wasteful spending. Eighty percent of our budget goes to recurrent. Recurrent means salaries and allowances of staff and with due respect to people in office the public sector is unproductive. So if it is unproductive one way of saving money from it is to reduce the size, but I don’t support reducing the size because it would create its problem. They should reduce the salaries, the salaries that are being paid to unproductive public servants. If the country cannot pay a minimum wage of N18,000 what is the justification of somebody getting N100,000, N200,000, N250,000, one million naira and many millions a month. So they are not really being honest with regards to seriousness in terms of saving our scarce resources in these various areas. They want to leave like before when we were getting this windfall which again has been wasted which is why we are where we are today. So agriculture they have neglected, unproductive sector is taking our money, and the third one is our consumption pattern, which we have not domiciled to put in alignment with our capacity to produce. One will like to demonstrate the decimation of the naira. In 1986, I bought one dollar and 40 cents with one naira and I bought one pound sterling with one naira 20 kobo.

Today if I want one pound sterling I have to go and find N670 and if I want one dollar, even in the Central Bank they will take N305. You tell me how this could work. And you can also use an example of labour. In UK the minimum wage per hour is seven pounds, 50 pence. Supposing one works for five hours in a day, he is getting 40 pounds per day. Now, multiply 40 pounds into naira, that is 40 pounds times 300, that is roughly N120,000. This is the minimum wage being paid to a labourer working for five hours in London and you are not able to pay N18,000 a month as minimum wage. Something is totally wrong and I cannot see us out of recession until we go back almost to the beginning because I cannot see all these touch and go approach when you talk of productivity. Where is the productivity coming from?

The factories are closed. In Kano in the last five to 10 years about 10,000 factories have closed. Agriculture is not getting the allocation that will make key production. So I cannot see us getting out of this recession except through meetings. Officials are just deceiving themselves because they know that this is not going to happen under this current regime of remedies that are being proposed.


http://sunnewsonline.com/nigeriall-never-get-out-of-recession-prof-ango-abdullahi/

Old hag we will get out

God will lead our leaders right


God bless muhammadu Buhari

Long live muhammadu Buhari

Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria

Curvinus:
Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum Prof Ango Abdullahi has waded into ongoing debates about President Muhammadu Buhari's dismal performance in office, declaring emphatically that the country may never really get out of recession under the policies of the present administration. Here are excerpts of the interview....

Many people have been talking about the Nigerian economy, the recession, for instance. What is your assessment of the recession we are said to be in. Are we likely to get out of it soon?

No. My overall assessment or projections about the recession as presently managed or in terms of the proposals that are being made for us to get out of it is that we will never get out of it. It may sound too pessimistic but I cannot see how we will get out of recession with at least two or three of these policies on ground. One, the naira has been so decimated to the point of almost being valueless against currencies which countries we do business with. Let me give you an example. Supposing we want to improve on power, we are going to buy every pin, every screw, and everything else you think of that is associated with power development from outside the country which means that we have to get the naira equivalent to the dollar that you have to have to buy everything that you want to import for infrastructural development in this country. Where are you going to get it with a country where there is hardly any productivity anymore? The country is certainly unproductive. So I was arguing very strongly that one way to get out of recession is to reduce our consumption, particularly consumption of our unproductive public sector because the public sector is unproductive, take it or leave it. They may not like what I say, but it is unproductive. If our public sector had been productive we cannot be where we are in terms of our power supply and social infrastructure. It is not working. The productive areas have been neglected. They say agriculture will be the alternative, but look at the budget in 2016; agriculture was given 1.6 percent as the capital allocation for a sector that still provides 40 to 45 percent of the GDP. In the so-called 2017 budget, the allocation is 1.8 percent. The recommendation of FAO, IMF and other world bodies, developing countries should at least give 20 percent of their budgetary allocations to agriculture. This is what Malaysia did. Malaysia for 10 consecutive years their allocation to agriculture was not less than 15 percent annually and that’s why today when they got their seeds from us, the year they got their palm oil seeds I was just graduating from the University of Ibadan in 1964. Today if you fly over Malaysia you will see nothing except palm grooves. They are the largest producers of palm oil in the world and they are already converting palm oil into diesel. So, I cannot see any action now. I talked about the issue of salary.

The country must save from its wasteful spending. Eighty percent of our budget goes to recurrent. Recurrent means salaries and allowances of staff and with due respect to people in office the public sector is unproductive. So if it is unproductive one way of saving money from it is to reduce the size, but I don’t support reducing the size because it would create its problem. They should reduce the salaries, the salaries that are being paid to unproductive public servants. If the country cannot pay a minimum wage of N18,000 what is the justification of somebody getting N100,000, N200,000, N250,000, one million naira and many millions a month. So they are not really being honest with regards to seriousness in terms of saving our scarce resources in these various areas. They want to leave like before when we were getting this windfall which again has been wasted which is why we are where we are today. So agriculture they have neglected, unproductive sector is taking our money, and the third one is our consumption pattern, which we have not domiciled to put in alignment with our capacity to produce. One will like to demonstrate the decimation of the naira. In 1986, I bought one dollar and 40 cents with one naira and I bought one pound sterling with one naira 20 kobo.

Today if I want one pound sterling I have to go and find N670 and if I want one dollar, even in the Central Bank they will take N305. You tell me how this could work. And you can also use an example of labour. In UK the minimum wage per hour is seven pounds, 50 pence. Supposing one works for five hours in a day, he is getting 40 pounds per day. Now, multiply 40 pounds into naira, that is 40 pounds times 300, that is roughly N120,000. This is the minimum wage being paid to a labourer working for five hours in London and you are not able to pay N18,000 a month as minimum wage. Something is totally wrong and I cannot see us out of recession until we go back almost to the beginning because I cannot see all these touch and go approach when you talk of productivity. Where is the productivity coming from?

The factories are closed. In Kano in the last five to 10 years about 10,000 factories have closed. Agriculture is not getting the allocation that will make key production. So I cannot see us getting out of this recession except through meetings. Officials are just deceiving themselves because they know that this is not going to happen under this current regime of remedies that are being proposed.


http://sunnewsonline.com/nigeriall-never-get-out-of-recession-prof-ango-abdullahi/

I don't believe the bolded

Tru. Becos even in dis so call recession, sum people are making,stealing,hiding, billions.

Curvinus:
Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum Prof Ango Abdullahi has waded into ongoing debates about President Muhammadu Buhari's dismal performance in office, declaring emphatically that the country may never really get out of recession under the policies of the present administration. Here are excerpts of the interview....

Many people have been talking about the Nigerian economy, the recession, for instance. What is your assessment of the recession we are said to be in. Are we likely to get out of it soon?

No. My overall assessment or projections about the recession as presently managed or in terms of the proposals that are being made for us to get out of it is that we will never get out of it. It may sound too pessimistic but I cannot see how we will get out of recession with at least two or three of these policies on ground. One, the naira has been so decimated to the point of almost being valueless against currencies which countries we do business with. Let me give you an example. Supposing we want to improve on power, we are going to buy every pin, every screw, and everything else you think of that is associated with power development from outside the country which means that we have to get the naira equivalent to the dollar that you have to have to buy everything that you want to import for infrastructural development in this country. Where are you going to get it with a country where there is hardly any productivity anymore? The country is certainly unproductive. So I was arguing very strongly that one way to get out of recession is to reduce our consumption, particularly consumption of our unproductive public sector because the public sector is unproductive, take it or leave it. They may not like what I say, but it is unproductive. If our public sector had been productive we cannot be where we are in terms of our power supply and social infrastructure. It is not working. The productive areas have been neglected. They say agriculture will be the alternative, but look at the budget in 2016; agriculture was given 1.6 percent as the capital allocation for a sector that still provides 40 to 45 percent of the GDP. In the so-called 2017 budget, the allocation is 1.8 percent. The recommendation of FAO, IMF and other world bodies, developing countries should at least give 20 percent of their budgetary allocations to agriculture. This is what Malaysia did. Malaysia for 10 consecutive years their allocation to agriculture was not less than 15 percent annually and that’s why today when they got their seeds from us, the year they got their palm oil seeds I was just graduating from the University of Ibadan in 1964. Today if you fly over Malaysia you will see nothing except palm grooves. They are the largest producers of palm oil in the world and they are already converting palm oil into diesel. So, I cannot see any action now. I talked about the issue of salary.

The country must save from its wasteful spending. Eighty percent of our budget goes to recurrent. Recurrent means salaries and allowances of staff and with due respect to people in office the public sector is unproductive. So if it is unproductive one way of saving money from it is to reduce the size, but I don’t support reducing the size because it would create its problem. They should reduce the salaries, the salaries that are being paid to unproductive public servants. If the country cannot pay a minimum wage of N18,000 what is the justification of somebody getting N100,000, N200,000, N250,000, one million naira and many millions a month. So they are not really being honest with regards to seriousness in terms of saving our scarce resources in these various areas. They want to leave like before when we were getting this windfall which again has been wasted which is why we are where we are today. So agriculture they have neglected, unproductive sector is taking our money, and the third one is our consumption pattern, which we have not domiciled to put in alignment with our capacity to produce. One will like to demonstrate the decimation of the naira. In 1986, I bought one dollar and 40 cents with one naira and I bought one pound sterling with one naira 20 kobo.

Today if I want one pound sterling I have to go and find N670 and if I want one dollar, even in the Central Bank they will take N305. You tell me how this could work. And you can also use an example of labour. In UK the minimum wage per hour is seven pounds, 50 pence. Supposing one works for five hours in a day, he is getting 40 pounds per day. Now, multiply 40 pounds into naira, that is 40 pounds times 300, that is roughly N120,000. This is the minimum wage being paid to a labourer working for five hours in London and you are not able to pay N18,000 a month as minimum wage. Something is totally wrong and I cannot see us out of recession until we go back almost to the beginning because I cannot see all these touch and go approach when you talk of productivity. Where is the productivity coming from?

The factories are closed. In Kano in the last five to 10 years about 10,000 factories have closed. Agriculture is not getting the allocation that will make key production. So I cannot see us getting out of this recession except through meetings. Officials are just deceiving themselves because they know that this is not going to happen under this current regime of remedies that are being proposed.


http://sunnewsonline.com/nigeriall-never-get-out-of-recession-prof-ango-abdullahi/

It's so dismal and disheartening that we still have old folks who feel nothing good can ever come out of this country..It depicts the bad mentality that has become part of us and thus,likelihood of being transferred to the next generation.. But as a patriotic Nigerian, I believe Nigeria will surely rise again.It will definitely take time but that day will come to pass.

so according to him, after buhari destroyed the economy, he then decided to go and die in London abi?

I rebuke it in Jesus Name...Nigeria is bigger than anyone, so whatever the case maybe Nigeria will surely be free of recession if not now maybe a lil bit letter, but we shall surely be free

...am totally disagree with prof. in the sense that Nigeria had ever rely on the productivity of public sectors for their progression in the past, and this is not the first time Nigeria went into recession, and I can't agree that our policy took us out of it! may be we were always lucky with oil boom! also our policy on agriculture had never been better! even today by luck we may get out of recession sooner than we think!

If we can not get out it,we will also adjust to live with it,nothing is forever except the Almighty God.

Back to the sender.....Pray for the peace of the Jerusalem (Nigeria) those that love her will prosper...In other words those that that her will be destroyed.

Na depression go kill those who wish we die in recession....Oga proff .Where is your children Nigeria or abroad

sarrki:
Old hag we will get out

God will lead our leaders right


God bless muhammadu Buhari

Long live muhammadu Buhari

Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria

Always quoting out of context,
COCOA NORTH HERD.:-/:-/:-/:-/:-/

sarrki:
Old hag we will get out

God will lead our leaders right


God bless muhammadu Buhari

Long live muhammadu Buhari

Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria

of course, we shld get out, but only if we allow people like buhari to do their work. The guy makes a valid point, if NIGERIA wants to do anything, they import every pin...we produce nothing!!!

The only way Canada was able to beat recession, despite being an oil producing country, is because they produce a lot, for export and same, to cushion the spending on foreign reserve.

Nigeria, on the other hand, produces nothing!

If our brothers, wey come from where sun dey rise, no allow buhari work, we will die in that recession, because the mumu they will vote for, will plunge us back into being dependent on importation, just to please some idiots.

The same thing buhari tried to do, which they see as hardship, instead of necessity, which allowed IBB to help them back into importation spree, is the same he's doing today.

Make dem just allow the man work...

Help us beg PDP and their stupid wailers!!!