The Federal Government yesterday blamed former Central Bank Governor Professor Charles Soludo for the present problems facing the nation’s banking and financial sectors. Briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday, the Minister of State for Information and Communications, Labaran Maku, said Professor Soludo caused a lot of havoc to the sector before he left about two years ago.
“We hold Soludo, who was CBN governor until about two years ago, accountable for all that is happening in the banking and financial sectors,” Maku remarked, adding that in the last one year, Nigeria has been contending with the issues in the financial sector following the very difficult circumstances it inherited as a result of the misdirection and sometimes misapplication of the reforms in the banking sector.

“The government has struggled with some of these banks and as of today, we want to assure you that the establishment of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) is to address some of the crises that we inherited.

Maku said that the report which the government got from the present CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on the state of the economy showed that the economy is due to grow by 7 per cent and that this projected growth will increase from year to year as the nation proceeded with the implementation of the programme.

Soludo had warned that if pre-emptive measures are not taken now, Nigeria’s economy is “doomed” to a worse form of structural adjustment programme (SAP). In an essay published in a national daily, Soludo, who ran for governorship election in Anambra State in March, expressed concern that the government had been piling up domestic and foreign debts with no improvement in the economy.

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