The Economy is Going Down, Soludo Warns – Thisday

Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has warned that if pre-emptive measures are not taken now, Nigeria’s economy is “doomed” to a worse form of structural adjustment programme (SAP) and “something will have to give”.

In an exclusive essay published in THISDAY today, Soludo, who also ran for governorship election in Anambra State in March, challenged presidential aspirants to debate economic issues before the general election.

[b]Soludo expressed concern that the government had been piling up domestic and foreign debts with no improvement in the economy.

He wrote: “In spite of the heavy external debt of $34 billion and oil prices ranging between $25- $50 during the (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo’s second term, we managed to grow the economy at about 6-7 per cent per annum (from average of 2.8 per cent in the 1990s). We started saving for the rainy day when oil prices reached $35 and by 2007, despite paying $12 billion to write off the Paris Club debt in 2006, we had saved about $22 billion as ‘Excess Crude’.

“In the last few years, oil prices have averaged $70 to $85 per barrel. What has happened? We have spent the $22 billion saved under Obasanjo, and now massively borrowing at an alarming rate (domestically and externally) during a period of unprecedented oil price boom, and yet the economy remains static at 6-7% growth rate. Recurrent expenditure of the public sector has more than doubled since 2004, leaving very little for investment.”[/b]

http://nigerianbulletin.com/2010/09/15/the-economy-is-going-down-soludo-warns-thisday/

Ever since the above concerns were raised by the former CBN governor, no answers have been rendered by our policy makers(Aganga and Sanusi), instead they resorted to attacks on the person of Soludo.
I personally will want an answer to the above issues.