A litle on the phenomenon called Soludo;

PART ONE: Here I Am, Send Me! My Background

I believe that God has a purpose and a plan for everyone. From my very humble beginnings, it is only through the grace of God that I could have earned a Distinction grade at the secondary school; a B.Sc (First Class Honours) (Economics); an M.Sc. and a Ph.D (Economics) winning Departmental, Faculty and University awards as best graduating student at the University of Nigeria. I had cumulative four years of post-doctoral training and research in some of the world’s best institutions including the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; University of Oxford, UK; University of Warwick, UK; Cambridge University as Smuts scholar; UN Economic Commission for Africa; the IMF Research Department, etc. I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB); Fellow of the Nigerian Economic Society (FNES), and awarded Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) (Honoris Causa) from three Universities.

I was visiting Associate Professor at Swarthmore College, USA, and promoted Professor of Economics at the age of 38 (University of Nigeria, Nsukka). I lived and worked in Ethiopia, U.K., and the USA and travelled to 45 other countries before joining Government in 2003. As consultant to 18 international organizations (including the World Bank, IMF, OECD Paris, European Union, African Union, USAID, UK-DFID, ADB, IBM Consulting, USA; IDRC Canada; Chemonics International, USA;  United Nations, UNIDO, ECOWAS, COMESA, CODESRIA, UNCTAD; AERC Nairobi) I garnered wide ranging experiences and knowledge. I was also the founding Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu. I have to my credit over 80 scholarly publications, 15 books, and over 250 monographs, conference papers and public lectures.

At the Federal Government (2003 – 2009), I held five substantive positions: Chief Economic Adviser to the President; Deputy Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission (of ministerial rank by law); Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Chairman, Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM), Plc; Founder and Chairman, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), as well as membership of more than 25 technical/policy committees. These assignments saw us draft the Government’s reform agenda (National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, NEEDS); massively restructured nonperforming government institutions; rebuilt the CBN and NSPM; revolutionalized the Nigerian banking/financial system; set up a new international financial institution, AFC, and helped to steer the Nigerian economy away from the global financial crisis. For these accomplishments, I have been decorated with scores of awards, including being awarded the African and Global Central Bank Governor of the year, 2006 by the Banker (Financial Times) and the Financial Times of London has described me as “a great reformer”. The Federal Government has conferred the third highest national honour (Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR) on me in 2006--- in recognition of accomplished performance.

Recently, I have served as a member of the United Nations Commission of Experts on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis. Also, I have served as a member of the International Advisory Group for the UK- DFID, and still member of the 7- man Chief Economist Advisory Council of the World Bank.  Immediately after completing my tenure of office as Governor of the Central Bank, I have accepted three international offers.

I served the Federal Government of Nigeria under two Presidents and below are excerpts of what each had to say about my services to Nigeria:

“Charles Soludo is a true Nigerian. He is the sort of Nigerian that we all know we can rely on. Among his numerous virtues is COURAGE. I have found in him a man who can take tough and realistic decisions, stand his ground, educate others on the salience of his decision, and work very hard to ensure that the decision is efficiently and effectively implemented. His dedication to duty is first rate. His leadership qualities are admirable and his willingness to listen and learn is simply infectious.
Professor Soludo has within a short time emerged as one of the leading lights of our nation. Not because he has a godfather but by sheer hard work, loyalty, dedication to duty, commitment to the nation, creativity, and undiluted association with the reform agenda, ”. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR (December, 2004)

President Yar’Adua had the following the say about the CBN under my leadership:

“… the CBN has performed creditably well in delivering on its core mandates. This is especially even more so in the last five years. Most people would agree that without the successful banking consolidation and effective management of our foreign reserves, the current global crisis would have shaken the financial system and our national economy to their foundations with calamitous consequences”; President Yar’Adua (May 2009).

In the President’s letter of commendation after completion of my tenure of office, the President had the following to say:

“As your tenure as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria comes to a glorious end, I write on behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria to place on record our debt of gratitude to you for your dedicated service and uncommon sense of duty over the past five years. I am confident that your worthy antecedents in the CBN and in prior appointments in the service of our nation remain sources of inspiration to an entire generation. As I wish you even more astounding successes in the years ahead, it is my fervent hope that you will readily avail us of your distinguished service when the need arises in the future” (June 2009).

CAN you stop wasting bandwith with this your Messiah soludo.
i have heard enuff . he is yesterday man. deal with it.

ode remo:

CAN you stop wasting bandwith with this your Messiah soludo.
i have heard enuff . he is yesterday man. deal with it.

Ode, I will be very happy if you can post your today's man's CV side by side that of Soludo ao that the public can make their judgement.

Soludo Enjoying His Loot!

earlier on the above thread you were defending him like no tomorrow, not satisfied you actually now want to pitch a thread on the man soludo .as if your soludo is a saint.
was not the same guy that says our economy was in good shape insulated against any global downturn.
give us a break?

ode remo:


earlier on the above thread  you were defending him like no tomorrow, not satisfied you actually now want to pitch a thread on the man soludo .as if your soludo is a saint.
was not the same guy that says our economy was in good shape insulated against any global downturn.
give us a break?

Soludo never made that statemant and has in fact challenged anybody who said he made the statement to prove it. Below is his response on that;

I NEVER EVER said that the Nigerian economy or the banking/financial system was “immune” or “insulated” from the global crisis. Aside from the usual sensational headlines of some newspapers (designed to sell their newspapers) and of course some misrepresentations by some commentators, the records show that I was the most vocal public official in articulating the nature and causes of the crisis and the consequences for the Nigerian economy as well as the remedial actions. Disprove this point if you can, Hon. Minister! When a section of the media tried to insinuate that my assurances that we would survive the crisis meant that Nigeria was ‘insulated’ from the crisis, I issued clarifications (as advertorial) through my Special Assistant (media) in early 2009.

I have the transcripts and video copies of my public presentations on the crisis. Indeed, when most analysts were busy looking for the domestic causes of the crash of the capital market, I was the first public official to link the woes of the capital market to the global financial crisis, and also laid out the proactive measures we took at the CBN.  The Guardian newspaper, 5th October, 2008, while reporting my presentation at Thisday newspaper’s seminar on the capital market crisis quoted me as saying: “We now begin to have cross-border contagion”,  “Given the credit crunch in the advanced industrial world, several of the institutional investors from those markets began to pull out of our markets”,  “We have taken a lot of actions in terms of liquidity,  Our doors are open, we are free and open to lend to the banks, our discount windows are open, our liquidity ratios are down, our monetary policy rate is down, and the minimum cash reserve requirement is down”.

Do these sound like someone saying that Nigeria was “insulated” or to use Aganga’s term “isolated”?

On 21st October, 2008, I appeared at the plenary session of the Senate with Minister of Finance, Dr. Usman; Minister of National Planning, Senator Daggash; and Chief Economic Adviser, Mallam Tanimu Yakubu. While reporting the session, Tribune newspaper of 22 October, 2008 reported that “‘They, however, agreed that the economy was not immune to the effects of the global financial meltdown as they said that banks in the country might have to recapitalize to fence off the effects of the meltdown”. Quoting me directly, the Tribune reported me as saying:

“I assure you that our foreign reserves are safe. That is the first round effect. On the second round effects, some of the assets of the banks could potentially deteriorate. It’s a potential risk because they are exposed to the capital market. We have done something proactively because we didn’t wait for them to collapse,  We insist that no bank will fail. We have also restricted foreign ownership of our banks. With the benefit of hindsight, it was a good move. We have also suspended mop-up operations. There’s liquidity surge. Banks should reduce exposure to the capital market,  As a lender of last resort, no Nigerian bank would be allowed to fail, but we need to recapitalize to make the sector more vibrant. We are not likely to go into a recession”.

Reporting the same Senate appearance (which was televised live on NTA), Thisday newspaper of 22nd October, 2008 (p.1 and p.7) reported me as follows:

“No Nigerian bank will be allowed to fail,  He said the CBN was ready to take any necessary step to save the banks in the event of distress— including taking over ‘toxic assets’ in the banks’ balance sheets,  ‘We proposed an Asset Management Company during consolidation programme, but it was not passed by the National Assembly. This is the time, President of the Senate, most distinguished senators, to pass the Asset Management Company where banks and other financial institutions could go to sell or deposit some of their distressed assets,  But in order to pre-empt and make sure that the contagion does not wipe out our own system, we have also taken proactive measures by making sure that the system is as liquid as possible, and we have opened our lending window to be able to extend credit to any bank that needs it as much as it can,  But there are challenges going forward and that is the responsibility of the Senate. I think there are several bills before the National Assembly that need to be passed like yesterday that are needed to strengthen the financial system’. He listed the bills to include the Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Act, which he said had been in the National Assembly since early 2006. ‘It still requires amendments to strengthen the regulatory capacity. There is also a bill for Consumer credit. It is before the National Assembly; there is the bill for mortgage reforms before the national Assembly. ‘These bills need to be passed urgently because they are required to unleash the boom in Nigeria’s financial system and also useful for moving the economy forward”,  He, however, agreed while rounding off his presentation to the Senate, that “this is not the time to be complacent; it is the time to take action; it is the time for patience and it is the time to be vigilant”.

Do I need to say more? I thank the National Assembly for finally passing the AMCON Act. Are you still there, Hon. Minister, or are you embarrassed to learn that even the AMCON you taunt as the ‘saviour of the banks’ happens to be one of Soludo’s initiatives?

The man soludo is a Financial Thief and an Economical Looter

Soludo did consolidation which helped our banks withstand recession, he was able to manage our foreign reserve, it was this reserve that we ran to when the crisis was biting hard. Aganga and sanusi dey deplete our foreign reserve even when oil price dey increase, and someone dey use im stinking mouth dey tell me say soludo no beta pass sanusi. Look at 2011 budget for God's sake, if sanusi is really a bold person that knows what he is doing, why didnt he attack the presidency and other ministries that the budget is faulty.

seanet02:

The man soludo is a Financial Thief and an Economical Looter

U can not prove that, but I can prove that Sanusi and Lai Alabi waived 7 bn naira bad loan for Saraki which LAI did not deny.
Think about this, if saraki was owing IBPLC 8bn as at the time the list of debtors was published in 2009, why was his name not included in the list of intercontinental bank debtors. Wake up bro, sanusi is here to steal.

seanet02:

The man soludo is a Financial Thief and an Economical Looter

And ur man Sanusi is his accomplice. Why jail bank MDs and let Soludo go scott free.

RoadStar:

And your man Sanusi is his accomplice. Why jail bank MDs and let Soludo go scott free.

That's exactly the point.
People can smear him as much as they want but their efforts will yield nothing because they have nothing on him.

He is a man for Nigeria (this is why some folks are trying desperately to bring him down).

How I wish I have Soludo's contact. I'll personally beg him to shelve his aspirations at the federal level, join APGA and become our next governor after Peter Obi.
Anambra State so much need him.