NIGERIA’S former coordinating minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has put the present failure of Nigeria’s economy on the doorstep of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, an ex-president whom she described as lacking in ‘zero political will to save during the oil boom, whereas the Olusegun Obasanjo’s erstwhile administration saved $22 billion in face of global economic meltdown.
This former World Bank President did not mince words by hitting hard on the profligacy and spending spree of Nigeria’s resources under Jonathan, a situation she said was unfortunate for any resounding growth in economy.
The former minister of finance, on Thursday said the zero political will to save under former President Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the challenges the country is facing. She emphasized that President Muhammadu Buhari should not be blamed or castigated for the present epilepsy in Nigeria’s economy.
This discussion happened during “inequality, growth and resilience,” at George Washington University, the two-time finance minister said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must seek means to embed savings in national constitutions devoid of political manipulations.
Okonjo-Iweala maintained that Nigeria was able to save $22 billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which saved the country in 2008, when there was global economic meltdown. Regarding Chilean saving example, Okonjo-Iweala said: “We tried it in Nigeria, we put in an oil price based fiscal rule in 2004 and it worked very well. We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a 5 percent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy and we never had to come to the bank or the fund.
“This time around and this is the key now, you need not only need to have the instrument but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will. So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries.”
As a way forward to solving political will and political manipulations, she said: “That is the question that I ask, what do we need to do to these countries to save over a period of long accelerated growth. We need to devise mechanisms not just that are good technically but find a way to either embed them in the constitution or find a way to separate them from the political manipulation so that these countries can survive over time. To build resilience, African countries need tools, mechanisms and it is doable and we need to interrogate ourselves why we have not done it.”
Okonjo-Iweala stated that manufacturing was critical to growth in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, quoting manufacturing as just 11 percent of GDP in Africa, and nine percent in Nigeria. Her words: “I do not believe that we can be resilient, except if we can encourage manufacturing even on the goods we consume, services, entertainment industry, agriculture.
“I think these are the kinds of questions that policy makers struggle with on a daily basis and that is what we are going to answer to get resilience. If we don’t get these mechanisms, we politicise them, find ways to transform the base of the economy and create jobs including in manufacturing, I believe we are going to go into this looming deceleration that is being talked about.”
Also, Okonjo-Iweala said it was better to allow those managing Nigeria’s economy to do the best they could, noting that there could be solutions to the present economic decline in the country. She noted that she would not be available to serve the present administration if overtures were made to her by President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that Nigeria boasts of competent people, who would offer their services when called upon.

http://nigeriastandardnewspaper.com/ng/dont-blame-buhari-jonathan-crumbles-nigerias-economy-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-says-gej-zero-political-will-to-save-caused-the-nation-current-woes-lament-under-obasanjos-govt-nigeria-sa/

Na WA ooo, when will the blame and pointing accusations fingers stop.

the madam has spoken

ears have heard

Imagine such blame game...Okonjo,why yu wan betray Uncle Jona lyk this laaaa ??

honestly Jonathan was blind to most of d corruptions during his administration.

i guess his wil be amazed of d findings.

he was not sharp atol

bmc lies n propaganda machinery at work.

Written by EDITOR-IN-CHIEF| September 17, 2016

Truth be said.

The Jonathan's administration was a curse. He was indeed the most wasteful wreck I had ever seen. He and his cronies milked Nigeria dry. I guess he used most of his loot to buy new shoes since he had none in 2011 when he took over the realm of power. Shame on him for being clueless.

Madam all the good people of Nigeria know that already, is just that you are just reminding GEJ and his zombies. Well done ma for saying the bitter logistics truth

Jajaja:

Written by EDITOR-IN-CHIEF| September 17, 2016

When does the truth become a lie?

drss2:
bmc lies n propaganda machinery at work.

Did she say so or not?


Truth hurts IPob peasants

Gej crumbled the economy


Buhari crashed it

BMCs working hard in the BMC.

BMC: Buhari Media Commenter.
BMC: Buhari Media Center.

They quickly turned expert advisor when they must have failed on the job. She is just another failure talking bullsh!t.


Biafra is burning

and she was part of the government for the 5 years.. in Normal clan she could have resign honorably when the president doesn't go with your position,but instead you were made the head of the economic planning..
my final take is that she was a failure too..if Jonathan could fail to address the problem then...

Almost believed until i checked the source.

Are we still blaming Jonathan?

Is Jonathan still a president?

These Government have virtually exhausted the country's funds and resources on propaganda and fallacious tells. Alot of people have made alot of money from these people's government' sorry madness of propaganda, just approach them if they don't approach you and tell them you have some tells to rubbish Jonathan's name before the eyes of the gullible masses and you automatically become a millionaire.

Why can't we leave this blame game..it's time has long past.

She can't say that! Stop the fake news

fake news, check the source.

greenermodels:
fake news, check the source.

hello i still vividly remember how she warned jonathan to save during the oil boom just as obj saved but gej did not listen to her , that same news was in this article you call fake , every word in that article is legit... You will only call it fake if you are a supporter of someone who said "STEALING IS NOT CORRUPTION"

Hahahaha,BMC affiliate

eflintsone:
hello i still vividly remember how she warned jonathan to save during the oil boom just as obj saved but gej did not listen to her , that same news was in this article you call fake , every word in that article is legit... You will only call it fake if you are a supporter of someone who said "STEALING IS NOT CORRUPTION"

she warned the governors but amaechi lead them to court, to demand that the sovereign wealth fund be shared. the news is fake right from the source. don't quote me again.

greenermodels:
she warned the governors but amaechi lead them to court, to demand that the sovereign wealth fund be shared. the news is fake right from the source. don't quote me again.

It's normal for Amechi to react when he saw that Oga Jona wasn't willing to save our external reserves.

two years now we have a President but everything bad in this country including his illness is blamed squarely on his predecessor, so when is he resuming office as we are already midway through his tenure

boss1310:
two years now we have a President but everything bad in this country including his illness is blamed squarely on predecessor, so when is he resuming office as we are already midway through his tenure

Ok......based on logistic we should be talking about OBJ.........Biafuros are so d****b

Jonathan was a curse but removed the curse.

A president that will not respect the protocol but bypass the finance minister to be issuing arbitrary order to CBN to pay cash for unbudgeted and illegal courses.

Igbos be like

najoke:

Ok......based on logistic we should be talking about OBJ.........Biafuros are so d****b

some of you who think you ain't"dumb"yet see everybody who is talking about Nigeria's current problems as Biafrans,use that your wisdom to check again and you will notice that even people from the same region as the current leader is saying the same
anybody who see nothing wrong with our leaders right now is purely sentimental or not responsible for anyone
my dear for once think outside the box of tribalism and partisanship