- Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria's former VP, has advised Buhari and other African leaders on how to save the continent's economy
- Atiku listed several key recommendations the African leaders should adopt to save their countries' economies
- The former PDP presidential candidate advised Buhari and others to seek debt relief, amongst other recommendations
Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria's former vice-president
and presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential
election, has advised African leaders on how to
save the continent's economy in the face of the
coronavirus pandemic. One of the recommendations given by the
experienced politician is that Nigerian and other
African leaders must be united in the face of the
pandemic and seek debt relief.
Atiku also advised President Muhammadu Buhari
and other African leaders to start preparing for
how to tackle another economic recession which
may happen soon due to COVID-19.
The PDP chieftain said it is time Africa looked inward
for solutions, adding that the western leaders are
already preoccupied with their own problems.
Atiku also advised President Buhari to engage
Saudi Arabia and Russia diplomatically to settle the
crisis between the two which is affecting the price
of oil. The former vice president also advised Buhari to be
more committed to recovering the funds looted by
the former military leader, Sani Abacha. Lastly, he advised Buhari and other African leaders
to review their budgets to reflect current realities.

Read the full statement below:

Before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the
globe, Nigeria spent 42% of her earnings on debt
servicing. We have arrived at a new reality today:
even if we devote 100% of our income to
rebuilding our economy, it still will not be enough. COVID19 has wreaked such damage to the world’s
economy, and this is now very evident in the West.
But we should not take solace in any false sense of
security that nations like Nigeria are either immune
to the vagaries of this plague or that we would not
be as hard hit. The reason countries in the Western Hemisphere are reporting more significant numbers
than developing nations is primarily due to the
availability of testing and real-time information.
Ignorance is not bliss in this instance. We shall soon
know the truth and, sadly, this truth will not set us
free. It will shock us. Had we closed our ports of
entry early, we would probably have had better
reasons to be hopeful. However, the past is gone,
but we must be proactive in going forward.

Unity and Debt forgiveness

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Nigeria and
other African nations are yet to see the worst of the
effects of this scourge. That is why we should unite
together and seek debt forgiveness, as a direct
consequence of the impact of this pandemic on our
economies. And we have a perfect case because almost every
African nation with a COVID19 infestation had an
index case that originated outside the continent.
Nigeria’s index case was Italian, Liberia’s was Swiss.
Ethiopia had a Japanese index. South Africa’s index
case was South African, but he and his family got infected in Italy.
This crisis should force a commonality of purpose in
Africa. And more so in Nigeria. This is beyond
politics. Beyond religion. Beyond region. And
beyond ethnicity. As crisis go, this one can be described as existential. While it is true that in a situation like this, the
international community should invest in all
countries needing help, we must be mature
enough to see that that is not going to happen. The
only thing that is standing in the way of the
coronavirus in Africa is ourselves. And we should not give in to panic by the doomsday scenarios
being painted by analysts. They mean well, but if
they only shout fire in a crowded theatre, all that
their good intentions will cause is widespread
panic. We must remember that many of them had
predicted that Nigeria would cease to exist as a
corporate entity by 2015, but here we are.
We had the Wild Ebola Virus, and we defeated it
because we did not panic. We must apply that same
level-headedness to this crisis. But this does not
mean that we should go to the other extreme and
become overly optimistic or pollyannaish.

#Prepare to tackle economic recession

Even when we are able to avoid a high human toll
from this virus, we would not be able to escape a
much higher economic toll. We may have a
recession. The challenge right now must be to
mitigate it, since we cannot avoid it. Already, we see
forced currency devaluations from the Cape to Cairo. These will no doubt lead to internal inflation,
which will spell trouble for nations like Nigeria, that
have a high external dollar debt burden. Already, the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa is projecting that Africa’s growth will at
least drop to 1.8%, and maybe more. Bear in mind
that, thanks to nations like Rwanda, Ethiopia and
Tanzania, we had been projected to grow 3.2% this year.

#Africa must take responsibility, no feasible help from outside

Faced with this crisis, Africa cannot even think of
falling back on China, or the West. When a country like the US is struggling to supply its own
healthcare workers with personal protective
equipment, Africa will not feature high on its
priority. Where China is wondering how to explain
itself to the world when this dies down, our
challenges will be far from their minds. We must fall back on ourselves, or we will fall headlong. We
must take responsibility for navigating our way out
of a challenge that was forced on us from outside
the continent. This is the time for every money made in Africa to
stay in Africa. We have hospitals to build. We have
economies to reboot. We have citizens to care for
and return to work. We certainly should not be
sending money out of Africa and into Asia and the
West. Not now and not for the foreseeable future.
Oil prices have crashed, and that by itself should not
be enough to trigger a crisis. After all, the current
price of oil was lower than it is today when
President Obasanjo and I assumed office on May
29, 1999. Yet we paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign
debt. However, there are two remarkable differences.
The first is that we had a stellar cabinet between
1999-2007. We had the right people manning our
economy. We certainly would not have proposed to
take out a $500 million loan to digitalise the
Nigerian Television Authority, or devoted ₦37 billion to renovating the National Assembly
complex (which was built from the scratch at less
than 20% of that amount). Today’s Nigerian government is severely lacking in
qualified hands. And nothing proves this than the
state of the Presidency itself. To think that after
devoting ₦13 billion to the State House Clinic in the
last five years, it is virtually useless as we face the
most significant public health challenge of our national life. That is a pointer to the state of our
federal government.
The second and perhaps more important thing is
that we did not have to deal with a worldwide
pandemic of this extent (although we had the
H5N1 incident). As it stands today, the world is too preoccupied
with its challenges to prioritise Africa, and so we
have to prioritise ourselves. The issue of Nigeria
wanting to borrow $6.9 billion at this time shows
the almost delusory state of our government. No
one has that type of money to throw about. China and America, previously our two largest
creditors, have taken hits to their economies to the
tune of trillions of dollars. If they could, they would
consider taking from us at this stage. Why is it that the Nigerian government is always
quick to want to borrow at every instance? It
shows a lazy mindset and an inability to take those
sacrifices necessary to get the economy into shape.
Worse still it proves that we do not, as of yet, have
the ability to think outside the box for genuine solutions. We cannot be looking to borrow huge
sums at the same time our officials are taking
delivery of foreign-made luxury cars. We cannot be
considered a serious country when we refuse to
cut down on profligacy and instead seek outside
help to fund our inefficiencies.
Even in our own individual houses, when things
get tight, the first thing we should do is cut down
on unnecessary expenditure and then you look for
creative ways to generate funds and develop our
household economy, before we even seek outside
funding. A situation where the Nigerian government always seeks outside funding, which,
by the way has to be repaid if ever granted,
displays an inadequacy in the thinking process of
our leaders at the moment. So, other than asking for debt relief, what can we
realistically do to protect ourselves from the type of
economic collapse that could lead to social
upheaval in Nigeria?
#Intervention in global oil crisis
We can start from where we have the most
influence, the global oil industry. To save our
economy, Nigeria must engage in immediate shuttle
diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia and Russia to settle
their differences and end the price war that is
affecting the price of oil almost as much as the pandemic.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) cartel is more vulnerable than Russia right
now. Yes, Russia is also vulnerable, but so are we.
Russia has an almost stable gas market in Europe.
We do not. So we are much more vulnerable. This
price war is not just affecting Nigeria and Angola badly, it is also affecting the valuation of ARAMCO
and delaying vital decisions, which are troubling
signs. Nigeria must bring her weight (like we had done in
the past) to bear to force an early cessation of
hostilities so that oil prices could start looking up.
#Abacha loots
And secondly, we must insist that the Abacha loots
held back by various Western governments must
be immediately and unconditionally returned to
Nigeria. We have a humanitarian crisis on our
hands. I believe that President Trump is a
reasonable man. He knows that if nothing is done to avoid the foreseeable dislocation of African
economies, the next wave of mass migration to the
United States would not be from Mexico.
The worst thing we can do now is to wring our
hands and look to outsiders. Not now. The
leadership in Abuja and the rest of Africa cannot
afford to be lethargic while the rest of the world is
scrambling to save what they can of their
economies.
#Budget review
In Nigeria, it is already clear that we must abandon
the 2020 budget and come up with a more realistic
budget. Our oil benchmark is way off the mark. And
we are certainly no longer in a position to budget
₦100 billion plus for our legislatures and almost
₦50 billion for the Presidency (in truth, we were never in a position to do that). Other African nations must likewise re-budget and
reassign and reduce expenditure. We can not
spend on luxuries when our necessities have
exploded. We are at a crossroads, and we need to think and
act our way into taking the right road. History will
forgive us if we make the wrong decisions, but it
certainly will not forgive us if we take no decisions
in the misguided belief that others will save us. If
Nigeria does not save herself in this season of a global emergency, we may find that a new world
order will emerge and we will no longer be the
Giant of Africa. We may not even be the Giant of
West Africa if we do not take decisive action
immediately.
https://www.legit.ng/1319099-coronavirus-what-buhari-african-leaders-save-continents-economy-atiku.html

chatinent:
Atiku should shut up and stop being a motivational speaker; he wasn't any better then.

you can't tell but you surely know he could be better than this man

chatinent:
Atiku should shut up and stop being a motivational speaker; he wasn't any better then.

you only attack the messenger when you don't have anything meaningful to say

Buhari cannot listen to this advice because his ear still has infection.

When this man turn economist self,make him go face his son joor.

chatinent:
Atiku should shut up and stop being a motivational speaker; he wasn't any better then.

he was a vice.

I weep for this country! Of all what this man suggested, all you you guys could contribute is degenerate to bashing and myopic sentiments. I think we have a bigger problem in this country far worst than Covid 19 and Economic recession.

Atiku have tried. If only the present government will listen to him. Cutting the cost of government will go a long. I have said this before, federal system of government will not work in this country based on the mind Africans have (beast mind).

The only solution is fiscal federalism. Everyone should go and produce what you eat. Period

Amazing analysis and a total indictment of the ridiculous government we have. Buhari is a disaster worse than COVID-19 that befell 200 million people.

He is the worst thing that happened to Nigeria since 1960!

Blakjewelry:
you only attack the messenger when you don't have anything meaningful to say

Very typical of zombies. Id1ots like the person you quoted is the reason we have blockhead like Buhari in the first place.

Looking at the indices and projections, Nigeria future is totally abysmal.

This Man Could Be A Better Leader Than Those Jokers In The Cabbinate.

chatinent:
Atiku should shut up and stop being a motivational speaker; he wasn't any better then.

we are not surprised, ZOMBIE GENERAL

chriskosherbal:
he was a vice.

The moment I heard this man and Obj were at loggershead, that was when I concluded he was a good man with imperfections of course.