Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has had a distinguished public career. Twice finance minister and economic tsar, as the coordinating minister of the economy in her last iteration, she has hands on experience of the country's financials. That can't be denied her. Recently, speaking on the economic crisis in Nigeria at George Washington University, Washington DC, she said the current economic crunch was down to a lack of political will to foster savings. “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.”

Now, the way this has been reported, and has been latched on to, even by those who have made a career of destroying NOI's record of service to her fatherland, creates the impression that there was a paralysis in the government headed by Goodluck Jonathan, or at least very little appetite in trying.

Coming at a time, an especially absentee style of governance has taken over Abuja. Senior government officials, like the governor of Edo State, declaring a minister in the previous government of stealing USD6b , with a facetious rider that a senior US government official told him . Remember, Oshiomhole featured prominently on every photo-OP on the president's trip to the US. Add to the manic churn of the APC rumour mill: USD 90 billion recovered from the former petroleum minister, USD 200 billion recovered and to be repatriated from the UAE, trillions of naira liberated by the Treasury Single Account. If a quarter of these were true, even a-kite-in-the-sky president like Muhammad Buhari would not risk over fourteen hours of flight time for the sights of burgeoning China. Blaming the previous administration seemed to have run its course as poor management of the economy, most especially , a near-blindness to our diversity has robbed the government of popular support.

This is the fallow land NOI's comments, inadvertently or not , are coming to water. The “inability” of the previous administration to save was not for want to trying. As we shall see, the previous administration did save. What can’t be argued against is that we could do with much more savings. As it were, the gall in NOI's comments, is what is left unsaid.

A little context: NOI, as was President Jonathan, were stalwarts of savings. But they were up against governors who understood and exploited our weak revenue laws and constitutional fuzziness . Bukola Saraki, Rotimi Amaechi and Babatunde Fashola are the trinity of earn and spend governors, who twice took the federal government to court on the Excess Crude Account. By some wonderful twist of fate , they are all leading lights of the current ideas-challenged APC government . What kind of political will could have stopped them except an amendment of the constitution, which was an impossible feat given the death-like grip, governors wield over the state houses of assembly or a resort to constitutional breaches that made the federal government a present danger to our democracy in the Obasanjo years.

President Jonathan created the Sovereign Wealth Fund. First of its kind in Nigeria. Thanks to NOI herself, Segun Aganga, Adesina Akinwunmi and the support of the Nigerian people. Even here, part of the ECA had to go just to stave off a constitutional challenge.

For any money to be saved in the nation's financial architecture, it has to get into the ECA first. But this process was ambushed in the legislature by the Aminu Tambuwal (another APC peacock) led House of Representatives with the unwarranted increase in the benchmark whenever it had to deal with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) or even the budget once it got to the floor of the National Assembly. Raising the benchmark invariably vitiates the savings anticipated and thus less money in the ECA.

The major drain on the ECA through the Jonathan years was the subsidy payments. NOI suffered more than her fair share of name calling when the Jonathan's administration moved to remove the fuel subsidy. The removal can’t by any stretch be seen as a lack of political will. Hence, it's rather bewildering that she would lay the depletion of the ECA on the doorstep of Jonathan. Indeed, were memories not that short, many would recall that the sponsorship for the Ojota rallies against the removal of the subsidy regime was from the coffers of the Lagos State government.

And just last year, the Buhari government disbursed two tranches of funds. First , was dividends from the NLNG which the Jonathan government had saved and the second, bailouts to near-bankrupt states

Needless to state that all that happened, once you excuse certain acts of larceny that could be pinned down to some individuals, are to the glory of all that served the government . Collective glory, collective responsibility.

Written by Ebelo Goodluck.

Read more at: http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/213635/okonjo-and-the-politics-of-political-will.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNigerianVoiceNews+%28The+Nigerian+Voice+News%29

I am always depressed and very angry any time President Muhammadu Buhari blames the previous regimes for Nigeria’s existing economic woes and the deficiencies of his 11-month administration. Our president has spent the last 11 months telling us stories about how the country was badly managed in the past 16 years. The man who was voted to bring about ‘change’ has spent virtually the last 11 months blaming his predecessors while the country wallows in darkness, unending fuel queues, poverty, disease, hunger, unemployment and malnutrition. For me, this ‘waste’ mantra is a mere propaganda to cover up the failings of the government. Buhari was aware of the country’s economic situation before he promised ‘change’. Our president was at it again on Monday, telling a delegation that, “in the past 16 years, we made a lot of money without planning for the rainy day. We showed a lot of indiscipline in managing our economy, and that is why we are where we are today.” He spoke at a reception for a delegation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), led by its President, Dr. Bernard Aliyu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The truth be told without sentiment; the economy handed over to Buhari on May 29, 2015 was a fairly good one with consistent growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and industrial capacity utilisation. Under Obasanjo, late Yar’Adua and Jonathan, industrialists and SMEs were running their businesses with little encumbrances. The Naira and supply of fuel were fairly stable. The forex policy was also friendly to industrialists. That was why industrial capacity went up in the last three years of the Jonathan administration. So, how well-managed has this country been in the last 11 months under wailing Buhari? Are there positive stories to tell in areas like the value of our currency, economy, electricity, fuel supply, manufacturing, job creation and so on? The truth is that in just under 11 months, this administration has squandered virtually all the gains of the last 16 years. I challenge the president to point to a single tangible achievement of his administration in critical sectors like security, education, health, road, economy, power, housing or fuel in the last 11 months. All we hear of is the war against corruption while the country depreciates. The last 11 months brought pain, blood and tears to Nigerians, with thousands of businesses and manufacturers gasping for breath. Thousands of Nigerians have lost their jobs in the last 11 months.

The Naira, our symbol of nationhood has never had it so bad. At a point, it was trading for as high as N400/$. This is the same Naira Buhari inherited at about N220/$. In this country’s 55 years of nationhood, the supply of petroleum products has never been this bad. In the last two months, Nigerians have been forced to turn fuel stations to second homes. Under Buhari’s watch, petrol is selling for as high as N400 per litre in government-approved fuel stations in some states. The corruption we are witnessing in fuel stations across the nation today is unprecedented in the history of this country. Which corruption is bigger than buying petrol in a government-approved fuel station for N400 per litre?
Now, let’s go to power. The Buhari administration inherited a daily power generation capacity of 5500mgw and could not sustain itwithin 11 months. It is now struggling to do about 1800mgw daily. As a result, this hapless nation is perpetually in darkness. The epileptic supply of electricity, coupled with the piercing fuel scarcity has crippled this nation’s generator-economy. Many small and medium scale enterprises have crumbled under the weight of this twin monster. Homes and schools are also crumbling.

The crippling forex policy of this administration has also led to the crisis in the manufacturing sector, with so many plants shutting. In the area of security, under Buhari’s watch, over 3000 have been killed by Boko Haram; the same Boko Haram that had been restricted to Sambisa forest on May 29, 2015. This is the same Boko Haram he promised to eliminate within two months. He eventually shifted it to December 2015 without result. So, what is our president talking about? Buhari has so far failed to sustain virtually everything he inherited from his predecessors, let alone improving on them.

Yes, this country did not get as much as it should from the previous regimes in the last 16 years. Yes, there was so much waste, ineptitude and corruption. However, it was not a complete failure as being chanted by Buhari. It was clearly not 16 years of waste. The undisputable facts are there. Industrial capacity utilisation rose to 49% between 2012 and 2014, as confirmed by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Maybe Buhari has suddenly forgotten that during these 16 years under review, Nigeria’s economy became the biggest in Africa, pushing aside mighty South Africa. We surpassed South Africa and our economy is now the largest in Africa and the 26th largest in the world. Between 2011 and 2014, GDP growth hovered around 7%per annum, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. According to a World Bank data, the Foreign Direct Investment in just the first six months of 2014 stood at $9.7 billion. Over $27 billion FDI flowed into Nigeria under five years of Jonathan; the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. The moribund automotive industry was revived during this ’16 years of waste’. Vehicles are currently being assembled in Nigeria after over 30 years comatose. Unfortunately, we have been losing all these gains in the last 11 months of the Buhari administration.

The GSM phone Buhari is holding is a product of these ‘16 years of waste’. The GSM companies created thousands of jobs, paid trillions of Naira in taxes and contributed significantly to our GDP. Under Goodluck Jonathan alone, 13 federal universities were established. This ensured that every state of the federation had at least one federal university.
In the area of politics, there were gains in the last 16 years with a stable democracy. Jonathan greatly deepened democracy in this country with consummate respect for free press, freedom of expression, human rights and virtually all democratic ethos. We must also note that Jonathan allowed a strong opposition party to emerge without ‘influencing’ INEC. That was why the then opposition All Progressives Congress emerged. Buhari benefited from this by emerging president last year.
In the health sector, the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan in 2013 successfully carried out the first open heart surgery in the hospital; the first-ever in its over 60 years’ history, thanks to the massive refurbishment/modernisation of federal health institutions across the country by Jonathan. The UCH, just like many federal health institutions benefited in terms of world-class equipment and the training/re-training of its manpower overseas. The hospital has since carried out more open heart surgeries.

The Aviation Master Plan and Road Map approved by Jonathan in January 2012 was passionately implemented. It was the first time that such a grand plan for the Nigerian Aviation Industry would be initiated and implemented ardently by any administration in this country. There are now two additional departure and arrival wings at the Murtala Mohammed international Airport which reduced queues during passenger processing. Some terminals in airports across the country were remodeled and upgraded. Regrettably, these projects have been stalled by this administration. Again, for the first time in the history of this nation, an international airport took off in the South-east. This is the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, upgraded by the Jonathan administration.
Things changed on many federal roads across the country. There was a pleasant massive rehabilitation, reconstruction and expansion of major arterial highways by the Jonathan administration. This reduced travel time between most origins and destinations on these arterial routes. Take a drive on the new look Benin-Ore axis, and you will understand what I mean. The “Operation Safe Passage” launched by the Federal Ministry of Works in 2012 has led to the repair of the failed sections of many federal highways. This is visible on roads like Ilorin to Jebba, Lafia to Makurdi, Aliade to Oturkpo/9th Mile, Enugu to Port Harcourt, Kano to Katsina and Odukpani to Itu. The Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road is also looking good.

It is also not true that previous regimes did not save while making good money from crude oil. Under Jonathan and Obasanjo, this country saved for a rainy day. During Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s first time as finance minister, she established a stabilisation mechanism and opened an account for the oil surplus, which posted up to $22 billion. In 2008, when prices fell from $148 to $ 38 a barrel, Nigeria did not suffer because the country was able to tap into this fund. When she returned to the same ministry in 2011, the account had been depleted to $4 billion by our squandering governors. Many will still remember the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) initiated by the Jonathan administration. Billions of USD were saved in this SWF, thanks to the impeccable economic management of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Again, our squandering governors mounted pressure on Jonathan and depleted it. Even after that, $1 billion was still left in the SWF and was handed over to Buhari by Jonathan.

It is also not true that Buhari has not been making good money in the last 11 months. I have heard Buhari’s legion of sycophants arguing that he is failing because there is no money to execute his plans. They attribute this to falling crude oil prices. This is not true. It is mere propaganda. This administration has been making good money from non-oil sourc¬es, including revenues from solid minerals and taxes. Good money has also been coming in from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). As a result, the three tiers of government in the last 10 months of the Buhari administration shared over N4.352 trillion from the Federation Account. The federal government alone got precisely N2.29 trillion as its share in 10 months – May 2015 to February 2016. Yes! N2.29 trillion. So what did our president do with this huge money?There is no single completed project in 11 months by the Buhari administration to justify this colossal amount. Contractors have abandoned virtually all federal projects across the nation.

Just as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said, the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government has failed in several fronts in its promises to the people. In response to public outcry against the excruciating pain faced by Nigerians, the NLC is to declare a one-day nationwide strike. Also, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, said: “Nigerians didn’t vote change for suffering. We didn’t vote change for agony; we didn’t vote change for tyranny. We fully endorse NLC resolutions for strike.” This planned action by the NLC is clearly a good step in the right direction. Nigerians need to send a concrete message to our president that he has failed and must wake up from his slumber.

Our dear president should stop his persistent excuses and get down to work. He must stop his globetrotting and spend quality time at home tackling the crisis this country is struggling with. This morning, I urge Buhari to reflect deeply about the recent statement of the Spiritual Father of the Holy Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (CSMC) Worldwide, Most Reverend Samuel Abidoye. He said: “This administration will be a year in the saddle, yet, little has changed in the status of Nigerians, despite its posturing, its anti-corruption moves and general reform initiatives. Poverty has become a way of life for many Nigerians who could barely feed once in a day. This is not what they voted for. They voted for a better alternative. They want better lives for their children. They desire improved social condition for young graduates. They want to see infrastructure improved. Anger, frustration, fears and disappointment is building up among the people. The government needs to be concerned; very concerned.”

Prince Adebola Adeniji-Adele an engineer is the National President, Citizens Liberation Advocacy Initiative (CLAI). In this interview with Daily Independent correspondent, Augustine Adah, he speaks on the current fuel scarcity and sundry issues. Excerpts:

For the past few weeks, Nigerians have been going through hardship occasioned by scarcity of petrol and high cost of living; do you think the present administration is right on course?

For a long time we have been clamoring for change, but my greatest surprise is to see otherwise. We have three different types of change, one we have change of mind, activity and paper. I am thinking the change APC was talking about is that of paper only. It is so funny that this present administration seems not to trust anybody and that is why it is not getting it right in some areas. As I am talking with you now, I stand to be corrected we have 36 ministers, but nine of them have no portfolio, and one person is in-charge of three portfolios.

Now, President Muhammadu Buhari made himself the minister of Petroleum while Ibe Kachikwu who was already the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was named the minister of state, because the administration did not trust other able Nigerians to do the job. If you look at the list of ministers in the present cabinet, with the exemption of Minister of Transportation, Works, Housing and Power, Solid Minerals and few others, all of them are above 60 years of age.

How do you expect magic from these aged men in this era of technological innovations? I pray that Kachikwu would be able to deliver petrol to Nigerians as promised because today is already April 7. Though I learnt that some saboteurs are sabotaging the effort of the present government in fuel supply to the country, I wish the government would be able to overcome all the impediments as fast as possible.

Many Nigerians are agitated that the present government has not been able to keep its promise on many issues. Do you think the government has kept some of the promises made to Nigerians so far?

This is a very good question. I don’t think one year would be enough to criticise the present government objectively. I personally, and CLAI our NGO have taken position that we would not assess the present government until after two years. I know that the present government is after those who made away with Nigerian money to recover them, let us see what would happen to those involved and what the government would do with the money. To be fair to them, one year is insufficient for any objective assessment of the government looking at the monumental frauds that characterised previous administrations in the country.

Talking about fighting corruption, what is your assessment of the way the government is going about with the issue?

Though I am not Buhari, but we have heard several complaints from some people and groups about the manner the government is going about fighting corruption. Some even complained that it is one sided, others said it is a tool used against political enemies. But the bottom line is that we know those who are corrupt both in the past and present governments.

Those that padded the 2016 budget by N10b are part of the present government whether they are civil servants or not, I expect the government to fish them out and punish them. I would not support fighting corruption that is not holistic. If you observe carefully, you would notice that some of the people who were accused of corruption presently did not steal the money for personal purpose.

It was the money meant for purchase of arms and ammunition that was diverted for 2015 presidential campaigns. I believe that APC as the ruling party is not free from the same crime because they have not told us where they got the money used for their own campaigns. We knew that many state governors donated a lot of money for the presidential campaign of the party, the money that was supposed to be used for the development of their respective states.

I think this is where I cannot blame Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of Finance completely because when the issue came up she protested and requested that a presidential approval must be obtained before the release of the money. If they go to International Court of Law, I believe the woman has something to say there.

What is your take on the recent declaration by the Attorney General of the Federation that the government would amend the electoral act in order to empower INEC to be able to deal with electoral crimes?

They should do that quickly because it is becoming too late. We have an adage in Yoruba that says if you don’t marry to wives, you wouldn’t know the best among them. When OPC under Gani Adams demanded for the head of Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of INEC last year over poor performance or whatever reason, little did they know that Nigeria would have somebody that would plunge the country further into election crisis.

I have never seen any election successfully conducted under the present chairman of INEC. It is either inconclusive or characterised by violence. You saw what happened in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states, if we begin to have inconclusive elections during rerun, what do you expect when the general elections that would affect the 36 states of the federation would be conducted? So we need that law now.

If they don’t do it now perpetrators of election violence and other malpractises would continue to have a field day and we would be denied of the fruits of democracy in the country. We don’t see anything that happened to those arrested of committing electoral crimes by INEC, because it does not have power to prosecute them. But if we can have the law now, it will help in curtailing violence because those who profit from the act would have a rethink.

I read the papers and two of the most conspicuous headlines centered on comments made by President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Leader of his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC.

As if in a coordinated onslaught, both of them blamed Nigeria’s current woes on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its 16 years in power.

There were many headlines reflecting their accusations, but the most descriptive, in my opinion, were from ThisDay and Punch newspapers.

The ThisDay headline went thus ‘Buhari Blames PDP for Nigeria’s Economic Woes’, while Punch had the following title ‘PDP Responsible For Fuel Scarcity-Tinubu’.

But are these claims and accusations factual?

Let us examine the first accusation by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said “In the First Republic, more enduring infrastructure was built with meagre resources. But in the past 16 years, we made a lot of money without planning for the rainy day”.

If the President actually is aware of contemporary history, he may have thought twice before making that accusation for the simple reason that it is actually his party, or more accurately, those who would go on to form the nucleus of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, that are to blame for the problems identified by the President.

Let me explain.

Being the type of person that he is, President Jonathan thought it wise to save for the rainy day and he not only thought about it, but he began to do so through two vehicles, namely the Excess Crude Account, which he inherited from the Obasanjo administration and the Sovereign Wealth Fund, which was an initiative of his administration.

After he formed his cabinet following his victory in the 2011 general elections, both President Goodluck Jonathan and the new Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, came under excruciating pressure from Governors, most notably Governor Rotimi Amaechi, to end the Excess Crude Account and atop saving in the Sovereign Wealth Fund and instead share the funds in those accounts amongst the three tiers of government.

As a matter of fact, the Governors, with Rotimi Amaechi at the forefront, approached the Supreme Court, to challenge the legality of the Excess Crude Account and the decision to transfer $1bn from that account to the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). They further wanted the court to order that the proceeds of the ECA be paid into the Federation Account and shared amongst the three tiers of government. Was President Buhari unaware of this when he rewarded the same Rotimi Amaechi with a ministerial appointment?

Ever a man of peace, President Jonathan tried reasoning with the governors and called a National Economic Council meeting and even brought the unfolding matter to the attention of the National Council of State of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a member. To the best of my knowledge, President Buhari did not speak out against the behaviour of the governors. Perhaps if he had, he would not be complaining today.

It should be recalled that though he met about $6.5 billion in the ECA, the Jonathan administration had grown that amount to almost $9 billion by 2012.

Eying this amount, the Governors using their influence at the House of Representatives had gotten that august body to declare the Excess Crude Account illegal in 2012.

Going a step further after the founding of their party, APC members of the House of Representatives approached a Federal High Court on the 7th of February, 2014, for a perpetual injunction restraining the Jonathan administration from operating the ECA and to pay all the proceeds of that account into the Federation Account for sharing amongst the three tiers of government.

I cannot speak to the eleven years before the Jonathan administration, but the truth is that those who frustrated the desire of the last PDP administration to save for the rainy day are precisely those who are most vociferous in condemning that administration for not saving in the time of plenty. Is that not a tad bit hypocritical?

Even if President Muhammadu Buhari wants to start saving anew today he may or may not be aware that he cannot do so with the Federation Account, as everything going into that account must be shared according to the revenue formula.

The President cannot also save in the Foreign Reserve. Unknown to a lot of people who think that the foreign reserve is cash in the bank which government’s can dip into, a foreign reserve is simply foreign currency reserves that are held for the sole purpose of guaranteeing or attempting to guarantee a nation’s liabilities such as its import and other valuables sourced from foreign nations.

The Government cannot also count on the Treasury Single Account (itself an initiative of the Jonathan administration from start to finish). The TSA is just a single account. It is not a savings account.

So, if President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration wants to save money for the future, there is no other way to go about it than creating a savings account other than the Federation Account, which is precisely what the Jonathan administration did.

And for one who is so convinced that we ought to be saving, I am rather surprised that the President agreed to bail out state governments with some of the funds saved up by the Jonathan administration (although the APC falsely claimed the funds came from the dividends paid to the government by the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited)

So you see, even from his first month in office, President Buhari has himself succumbed to the pressure from our governors to spend and share.

As for the esteemed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, what I would say to him is very short. Very short indeed.

Before Tinubu blames the PDP, he should look to his right and his left, look in front and behind. What he will see around APC are former PDP members.

Of the remaining APC members who are not former PDP, he will find that a great number of them helped to ground the country in January 2012 in protest against then President Jonathan’s plan to completely deregulate the petroleum industry, a move that would have prevented further scarcities such as the excruciating one we are experiencing today.

Having frustrated that effort, can Asiwaju in all good conscience today blame the PDP?

If I ask you, na who you go ask?

Omokri is host of Transformation With Reno Omokri, the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in California and author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God and Why Jesus Wept.

The way the world is going, I think we need to get things done well. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has done well, I don’t think she is the cause of Nigeria’s issues presently. Let the present administration look for ways to solve the issues of Nigeria instead of thriveng on the blame game.

I don’t think it is proper for someone to stand up one day and write things about Ngozi Okonjo Iweala the way this author has done. I believe that we should do these things well instead of spoiling people’s images.

Today’s world is such that people just get to do certain things at will which should not be. People should be able to think well instead of writing things that do not get the results we need. The writer wrote many paragraphs about Ngozi Okonjo Iweala which do not even stand the test of time.

I cannot take all these unnecessary heating up of the polity. If people do do have what to write about, I believe they should go and sleep and get themselves doing something that can make them better people.

This looks like a sponsored post to me. The writer wrote so many things but not all of it have the basic facts to prove that they are factual, relevant and indeed something we can write home about.

Nice one, its good to know that our finance minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun is working. This is just a start, gradually, we would see more t5hings we can be proud of.

Our minister of finance is working. At least that money can be used to pay legitimate workers in the civil service and employ more of our graduates who are jobless.

Kudos to Adeosun, it is good for us to get things done legitimately.Im proud that we have someone that can get things done for us as a nation. Kudos once again

The nation can also use the money for better things such as provision of social amenities like roads, social welfare and innovation

It is a good thing that Nigeria is gradually getting back on track again. This is what we have always craved for. Kudos to the minister of finance, the beautiful mrs Kemi Adeosun

great write up.

Nice write up to our minister of finance. Its good to know that there are plans to make Nigeria great again

The Nigeria of my dreams is gradually coming to past with people at the helm of affairs that are working. Kudos

It is good to hear that our minister is working. It makes us believe more in Nigeria.

Yes ma, Kemi Adeosun has done well with this article. That's a woman with a vision. She has shown that she is capable of the position she has been given as the honorable minister of finance.

The naira has been on a steady decline for the past few months. The disparity between rates at the Central Bank of Nigeria and that of the parallel market is as clear as the difference between day and night.

Many economic analysts and keen followers of the economy have blamed the situation on factors varying from the fall in oil prices to the depletion of the Excess Crude Account and the role of the Bureaus De Change.

It would be recalled that former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had a run-in with the governors of the 36 states under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

Against her advice, significant portions of the Excess Crude Account were used to augment monthly allocations to local and state authorities. The states had maintained that rainy days were already at hand and in fact (the rain) was already pouring, so the money needed to be used right away.



This rash nature of the state governors, who always want to spend, is why we are presently facing this freefall in the value of the Naira. If they had heeded the counsel of the former finance boss to save for the rainy day, we would not be in the mess we are in now.

But, they decided to feed fat on the nation’s oil boom and ended up plunging the entire country into economic crisis. Between 2011 and 2014, the 36 states of the federation received a total of N2.92 trillion from the Excess Crude Account. This amount alone is close to 50 per cent of the country’s 2016 budget. What would be the strength of the naira if these monies were saved and not expended by the governors?

Dr Okonjo-Iweala also said that a significant portion of the billions of dollars drained from the oil savings account over the past two years was distributed to “powerful governors” instead of being saved.

The decline in oil price reduced the earnings of the country. This situation in turn made the CBN to devalue the naira last year by 8 percent stating that it was running out of forex reserves with which to defend the currency.

If the governors had not arm-twisted Okonjo-Iweala by depleting the ECA, the CBN would have had enough forex to defend the Naira instead of having to devalue it. And since then, the naira has declined steadily before its recent rise against the dollar.

You would remember that these same state governors requested $2 billion from the ECA to complete projects and provide security ahead of last year’s elections. The powers the governors wield have to be put on a leash lest they run this nation aground with their insatiable appetite.

Nigerians must rise up and speak with one voice to confront waste in government so that our economy can be brought back to life.

In the 2015 presidential election, the APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory.

In a 1972 Hollywood film entitled The Candidate, Robert Redford acts as Bill Mckay, a political neophyte who is drafted out of the blue into a race for the U.S. Senate. With no chance whatsoever of winning, Mckay is given a free hand to say whatever he likes on the stump. Therefore, he tweaks the political establishment at every turn.

However, as a result of a series of unexpected developments, he keeps rising in the polls. By Election Day, he is neck and neck with his more seasoned opponent and the race goes to the wire. To everyone’s surprise, he pulls off an incredible victory and is elected senator of the United States.

The last reel of the film is on the night of his election. On hearing he has won, Mckay becomes flustered and confused. Victory was certainly not part of the plan. As media men gather, eager to get his reaction to his famous victory, he pulls his campaign manager into a room and asks him in consternation: “Marvin, what do we do now?” Before he can answer, the media close in on them, drag them out of the room and the film ends.

The satire of the film, which received an Oscar for Best Screenplay of 1972, is that while Mckay might have succeeded in fooling the electorate to vote for him, he did not have a clue what to do as a United States senator. It was all a bit of a joke for him, but then the joke backfired. He never expected to win and had no contingency plan for victory.

Groping in the dark

The Candidate could easily have been a made-in-Nigeria movie in 2015. To all intents and purposes, the opposition APC won an implausible victory against all odds. But in the presidential election, APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory. This is what accounts for the cul-de-sac we now find ourselves in Nigeria. If anything defines our current predicament, it is that we have a government that, in the middle of an economic crisis, does not have a clue what to do.



The APC did not plan to govern. The party-members told Nigerians what mayhem they planned to unleash should they lose and what parallel government they would establish. But concerning government, they proffered no solution on how they would address Nigeria’s urgent economic problems. On the contrary, they made wild unrealistic promises that were totally out of kilter with the situation on the ground; promising to do extravagant things that could not even be entertained by previous governments in more buoyant climes.

How else can one explain the fact that, in the context of a drastic economic downturn, the APC came out with a “Father Christmas” manifesto, loaded with such pies in the sky as paying unemployed graduates, or giving cash handouts to the poorest 25 million Nigerians? Foolishly, Nigerian voters failed to determine where APC hoped to get the money for such largesse.

Because the APC was not prepared to govern, no agreement was reached beforehand by the legacy parties of the coalition about how to distribute the spoils of office. This provided the basis for the free-for-all fights that ensued once the election was over.

Because the APC did not expect to govern and was not prepared to govern, it took President Buhari five months to choose his cabinet. Five months of squabbling and in-fighting, while pretending to Nigerians that the delay was needed to find technocratic saints and angels. But the saints and angels turned out to be the same old “devil you know.” While the president dawdled, the economy went from bad to worse and investors voted with their feet; leaving Nigeria in droves.

Nigeria in sick-bay

We are now confronted with the fact that there is definitely a technocratic deficit in the president’s new crew. Needing to make up for the time we lost while the president kept everyone waiting, we have now discovered that the people he laboured to choose bring little or nothing to the table in terms of their capacity to address expeditiously the grave issues currently confronting the country.

So what do we have now? Nigeria is a sick patient currently lying comatose in a hospital emergency ward. Her condition is critical. A surgical operation is urgently required. However, there is no doctor on duty. The night-nurse only works at the hospital in her spare time. In the daytime, she is the proprietress of a “mama put.” The other nurses are also part-time workers. They are a collection of cooks, tailors and groundnut sellers.

This raises grave concerns about the fate of the patient. What is going to happen to Nigeria? If we are not careful, this patient might not make it.

When President Buhari finally chose his ministers, he chose by his own account “noise-makers.” These turned out to be economic illiterates. Instead of putting together a coherent economic policy that will stop the free-fall of the naira and encourage monetary inflows to supplement the drastic cuts in our foreign exchange income, the government’s answer has been to do nothing but blame the past administration for everything. Its blueprint, if it has any at all, has been to ignore the economy and concentrate instead on anti-corruption propaganda while the president junkets around the world.

No economic blueprint

Before Lai Mohammed was appointed, Adams Oshiomhole was the self-appointed minister of Information. His job, was to attack Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former minister of Finance, at every turn. This assignment involved re-writing the history of the Jonathan years.



Okonjo-Iweala is a seasoned economist with vast technocratic experience. At one time, she was in the running for President of the World Bank. As minister of Finance, she had an economic blueprint for addressing Nigeria’s economic morass; something sorely lacking in Oshiomhole and his colleagues today. Since leaving office, she has been snatched up as Senior Advisor at Lazard.

Okonjo-Iweala stressed the need to reduce Nigeria’s recurrent expenditure. She insisted Nigeria could not afford the petroleum subsidy. She wanted its trillion naira leakages plugged. But Oshiomhole and his former labour union colleagues would have none of that. They mobilised Nigerians against her; so the hemorrhage continued. Okonjo-Iweala wanted Nigeria to save for the rainy day by establishing an excess crude account and a sovereign wealth fund where incomes above budget estimates could be saved.

However, Oshiomhole and his governor colleagues would also have none of that. They insisted all extra money earned must be shared and spent and not saved. They even went to court to force the minister’s hand. Now that the national oil cookie has crumbled, the same Oshiomhole and his misguided colleagues are holding Okonjo-Iweala responsible for not building sizeable foreign reserves in times of plenty.

However, nothing justifies Okonjo-Iweala’s earlier postures more than Nigeria’s present predicament. Indeed, what Nigeria desperately needs today is Okonjo-Iweala or an Okonjo-Iweala. We need a seasoned and experienced economist to head a team of hard-nosed economists to work out an economic policy to get Nigeria out of the woods. No such team exists today in the Buhari government. Instead of constituting an economic team, the president is appointing social media aides to help launder his image.

As a result, the naira is in free-fall and nobody in government seems to know what to do. It is now 400 to the dollar and the president keeps saying he is against devaluation because it will affect the masses. Somebody needs to tell Mr. President that the masses are already adversely affected. Everybody is raising prices, using the free-falling naira as excuse. It is not inconceivable that by this week-end, the naira might be trading on the parallel market at 500 to the dollar.

Big government

In many respects, Nigeria’s economic situation today is god sent. It enables us to do what we failed to do when the oil market was booming – downsize the government and transform the economy away from oil dependency. However, the tragedy of today is that we are saddled with a government that refuses to face reality. It refuses to entertain the harsh adjustments that need to be made.

The first economic blunder of this government was to bailout the states with salary arrears. The bailout did not address the fundamental issue of the insolvency of those states. It just postponed dealing with them. Since the bailouts are not grants but loans, with repayments to be deducted from the monthly allocations of the states, it means even less money will be coming to them now that there is far less money to share.



The truth is that most of Nigeria’s states cannot survive without government handouts. Better now than later, we need to re-visit the issue of Nigeria’s unrealistic states structure and face up to the fact that we cannot afford 36 states. Neither can we afford a federal legislature that gobbles up over N100 billion per annum. In addition, we can no longer afford a situation where billions of naira is spent every year just catering to the president.

Padded budget

One of the strange things about this government is that it refuses to entertain the need for austerity in the context of our drastically reduced income. Instead, it comes up with a bigger budget than when our economy was far more buoyant. Nigerians refuse to see the 419 in this. If you were earning six naira and your income drops to four naira, you don’t then decide to spend eight naira. This is what the economic illiterates currently running our economy are proposing to do in 2016.

The APC refuses to accept that after 16 years in the political wilderness, it has to make do with lean resources now that it is its turn to be at the helm of affairs. Therefore, it decided to pad the 2016 budget by basing it on oil selling at $38 dollars per barrel; when the commodity has already dropped far below $30. It has also decided to pad Nigeria’s reduced income with borrowed money.

Sums are allocated for fake items, others are inflated beyond measure. Although civil servants have been made the sacrificial lambs for the budget mess, one wonders if a number of the inflated items were not camouflaged backdoor paybacks for APC’s dubious election campaign expenditures.

The hard choices we continue to refuse to make today will still come back to haunt us tomorrow.

Share this:

In the 2015 presidential election, the APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory.

In a 1972 Hollywood film entitled The Candidate, Robert Redford acts as Bill Mckay, a political neophyte who is drafted out of the blue into a race for the U.S. Senate. With no chance whatsoever of winning, Mckay is given a free hand to say whatever he likes on the stump. Therefore, he tweaks the political establishment at every turn.

However, as a result of a series of unexpected developments, he keeps rising in the polls. By Election Day, he is neck and neck with his more seasoned opponent and the race goes to the wire. To everyone’s surprise, he pulls off an incredible victory and is elected senator of the United States.

The last reel of the film is on the night of his election. On hearing he has won, Mckay becomes flustered and confused. Victory was certainly not part of the plan. As media men gather, eager to get his reaction to his famous victory, he pulls his campaign manager into a room and asks him in consternation: “Marvin, what do we do now?” Before he can answer, the media close in on them, drag them out of the room and the film ends.

The satire of the film, which received an Oscar for Best Screenplay of 1972, is that while Mckay might have succeeded in fooling the electorate to vote for him, he did not have a clue what to do as a United States senator. It was all a bit of a joke for him, but then the joke backfired. He never expected to win and had no contingency plan for victory.

Groping in the dark

The Candidate could easily have been a made-in-Nigeria movie in 2015. To all intents and purposes, the opposition APC won an implausible victory against all odds. But in the presidential election, APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory. This is what accounts for the cul-de-sac we now find ourselves in Nigeria. If anything defines our current predicament, it is that we have a government that, in the middle of an economic crisis, does not have a clue what to do.



The APC did not plan to govern. The party-members told Nigerians what mayhem they planned to unleash should they lose and what parallel government they would establish. But concerning government, they proffered no solution on how they would address Nigeria’s urgent economic problems. On the contrary, they made wild unrealistic promises that were totally out of kilter with the situation on the ground; promising to do extravagant things that could not even be entertained by previous governments in more buoyant climes.

How else can one explain the fact that, in the context of a drastic economic downturn, the APC came out with a “Father Christmas” manifesto, loaded with such pies in the sky as paying unemployed graduates, or giving cash handouts to the poorest 25 million Nigerians? Foolishly, Nigerian voters failed to determine where APC hoped to get the money for such largesse.

Because the APC was not prepared to govern, no agreement was reached beforehand by the legacy parties of the coalition about how to distribute the spoils of office. This provided the basis for the free-for-all fights that ensued once the election was over.

Because the APC did not expect to govern and was not prepared to govern, it took President Buhari five months to choose his cabinet. Five months of squabbling and in-fighting, while pretending to Nigerians that the delay was needed to find technocratic saints and angels. But the saints and angels turned out to be the same old “devil you know.” While the president dawdled, the economy went from bad to worse and investors voted with their feet; leaving Nigeria in droves.

Nigeria in sick-bay

We are now confronted with the fact that there is definitely a technocratic deficit in the president’s new crew. Needing to make up for the time we lost while the president kept everyone waiting, we have now discovered that the people he laboured to choose bring little or nothing to the table in terms of their capacity to address expeditiously the grave issues currently confronting the country.

So what do we have now? Nigeria is a sick patient currently lying comatose in a hospital emergency ward. Her condition is critical. A surgical operation is urgently required. However, there is no doctor on duty. The night-nurse only works at the hospital in her spare time. In the daytime, she is the proprietress of a “mama put.” The other nurses are also part-time workers. They are a collection of cooks, tailors and groundnut sellers.

This raises grave concerns about the fate of the patient. What is going to happen to Nigeria? If we are not careful, this patient might not make it.

When President Buhari finally chose his ministers, he chose by his own account “noise-makers.” These turned out to be economic illiterates. Instead of putting together a coherent economic policy that will stop the free-fall of the naira and encourage monetary inflows to supplement the drastic cuts in our foreign exchange income, the government’s answer has been to do nothing but blame the past administration for everything. Its blueprint, if it has any at all, has been to ignore the economy and concentrate instead on anti-corruption propaganda while the president junkets around the world.

No economic blueprint

Before Lai Mohammed was appointed, Adams Oshiomhole was the self-appointed minister of Information. His job, was to attack Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former minister of Finance, at every turn. This assignment involved re-writing the history of the Jonathan years.


Okonjo-Iweala is a seasoned economist with vast technocratic experience. At one time, she was in the running for President of the World Bank. As minister of Finance, she had an economic blueprint for addressing Nigeria’s economic morass; something sorely lacking in Oshiomhole and his colleagues today. Since leaving office, she has been snatched up as Senior Advisor at Lazard.

Okonjo-Iweala stressed the need to reduce Nigeria’s recurrent expenditure. She insisted Nigeria could not afford the petroleum subsidy. She wanted its trillion naira leakages plugged. But Oshiomhole and his former labour union colleagues would have none of that. They mobilised Nigerians against her; so the hemorrhage continued. Okonjo-Iweala wanted Nigeria to save for the rainy day by establishing an excess crude account and a sovereign wealth fund where incomes above budget estimates could be saved.

However, Oshiomhole and his governor colleagues would also have none of that. They insisted all extra money earned must be shared and spent and not saved. They even went to court to force the minister’s hand. Now that the national oil cookie has crumbled, the same Oshiomhole and his misguided colleagues are holding Okonjo-Iweala responsible for not building sizeable foreign reserves in times of plenty.

However, nothing justifies Okonjo-Iweala’s earlier postures more than Nigeria’s present predicament. Indeed, what Nigeria desperately needs today is Okonjo-Iweala or an Okonjo-Iweala. We need a seasoned and experienced economist to head a team of hard-nosed economists to work out an economic policy to get Nigeria out of the woods. No such team exists today in the Buhari government. Instead of constituting an economic team, the president is appointing social media aides to help launder his image.

As a result, the naira is in free-fall and nobody in government seems to know what to do. It is now 400 to the dollar and the president keeps saying he is against devaluation because it will affect the masses. Somebody needs to tell Mr. President that the masses are already adversely affected. Everybody is raising prices, using the free-falling naira as excuse. It is not inconceivable that by this week-end, the naira might be trading on the parallel market at 500 to the dollar.

Big government

In many respects, Nigeria’s economic situation today is god sent. It enables us to do what we failed to do when the oil market was booming – downsize the government and transform the economy away from oil dependency. However, the tragedy of today is that we are saddled with a government that refuses to face reality. It refuses to entertain the harsh adjustments that need to be made.

The first economic blunder of this government was to bailout the states with salary arrears. The bailout did not address the fundamental issue of the insolvency of those states. It just postponed dealing with them. Since the bailouts are not grants but loans, with repayments to be deducted from the monthly allocations of the states, it means even less money will be coming to them now that there is far less money to share.


The truth is that most of Nigeria’s states cannot survive without government handouts. Better now than later, we need to re-visit the issue of Nigeria’s unrealistic states structure and face up to the fact that we cannot afford 36 states. Neither can we afford a federal legislature that gobbles up over N100 billion per annum. In addition, we can no longer afford a situation where billions of naira is spent every year just catering to the president.

Padded budget

One of the strange things about this government is that it refuses to entertain the need for austerity in the context of our drastically reduced income. Instead, it comes up with a bigger budget than when our economy was far more buoyant. Nigerians refuse to see the 419 in this. If you were earning six naira and your income drops to four naira, you don’t then decide to spend eight naira. This is what the economic illiterates currently running our economy are proposing to do in 2016.

The APC refuses to accept that after 16 years in the political wilderness, it has to make do with lean resources now that it is its turn to be at the helm of affairs. Therefore, it decided to pad the 2016 budget by basing it on oil selling at $38 dollars per barrel; when the commodity has already dropped far below $30. It has also decided to pad Nigeria’s reduced income with borrowed money.

Sums are allocated for fake items, others are inflated beyond measure. Although civil servants have been made the sacrificial lambs for the budget mess, one wonders if a number of the inflated items were not camouflaged backdoor paybacks for APC’s dubious election campaign expenditures.

The hard choices we continue to refuse to make today will still come back to haunt us tomorrow.

RingTrue with Yemi Adebowale, Email ; yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms only); 07013940521

I never in my wildest imagination thought that our dear Naira would ever depreciate to the level we are witnessing in the last few weeks. I had all along been expressing displeasure about the sliding Naira because of the slipshod economic policies of the Buhari administration, but I never envisaged that it would become this bad. About nine months ago when Goodluck Jonathan handed over to Muhammadu Buhari, the Naira was exchanging at about N220/$. Then, many were very angry and cast aspersions on the Jonathan administration for allegedly mismanaging the economy.

Now that the exchange rate has become extremely ridiculous, this set of people who protested against N220/$ are nowhere to be found. Our scruffy currency was yesterday exchanging at N371/$ at the parallel market following continued scarcity of the greenback. How can our dear Naira be exchanging at such an outlandish rate? Our symbol of statehood has never been this badly battered in the 55 years history of this country. We have never had it so bad. Clearly, these are signs of a badly managed economy.

It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language” of the President. The global standard is for a forward-looking government to come up with hard-headed policies to shore-up the value of its currencies. Such a government must also show by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the value of its currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single pragmatic policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All we’ve seen were cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that gave us no result. At a point, the Buhari administration placed all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of domiciliary accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.

Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this administration and its apologists have been spending precious time blaming crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan administration for our economic woes. They often forget that almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also affected by falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the falling oil prices. As a result, their currencies are not plummeting as much as the Naira is doing. A government that has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely has no business in power.

The manufacturing sector that would have helped to eo.susan ase the pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan may not be the best in terms of what this country desires in a president, but during his administration, some of these manufacturers were exporting to other West African countries and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan, our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity utilisation went up substantially. All sorts of stifling policies rolled out in the last nine months have combined to incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in electricity tariffs and policy somersaults are creating more problems for Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or relocated to other West African countries where production environment is conducive. Many can now understand why the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture faulted all the policies designed by the Buhari administration to stimulate the economy and salvage the Naira.

Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left me wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the Naira. This government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with huge foreign exchange components. By official figures, this administration spent N2.3 billion maintaining the ten aircraft in the Presidential fleet in the last five months of 2015. The bulk of this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same aircraft maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are talking about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our globetrotting President and his ministers must also cut their foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying governors must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again, why should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex to pilgrims at concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last year. Our president has to put aside sentiment and do the needful to save the Naira.
Our CBN has obviously failed in its core mandate of ensuring stability of the Naira. It must start employing rational strategies to prevent further depreciation of this currency.

Virtually all the policies put in place by the CBN to enhance the Naira were cosmetic. This is why we are getting this negative result. This government must allow the exchange rate to be determined by market forces but with some moderation by the CBN. The era of regulated inter-bank rate must come to an end. As suggested by MAN, the Naira should be allowed to float freely within a bracket. We don’t have adequate reserves to keep holding the naira at the so-called inter-bank rate. Illogical administrative controls and restrictions by the CBN are killing the Naira. This inter-bank rate is simply a paddy paddy arrangement involving government officials, banks and the CBN. If Buhari is genuinely interested in turning around this country, USD from the CBN should be sold at market price, with modulations. With this, forex round-tripping will die a natural death. This is the only way our battered Naira can appreciate.

Again, this administration has always been talking about diversifying the economy to reduce reliance on crude oil as our source of foreign exchange. It has been all talk and no action in the last nine months. It is very sad to note that Buhari lacks any blueprint on this much-talked about diversification. I challenge the president and his men to bring out any such document if it exists. They have simply been showboating. Buhari must get serious about the diversification of our economy. He has to genuinely start looking towards agriculture and solid minerals as sources of forex. He should also look towards gas, particularly the completion of Brass LNG project. He must genuinely encourage indigenous production and exports to enhance the Naira. The government must also implement policies that would stimulate foreign direct investments so as to grow its sources of forex.

Above all, our President must seek advice from competent economists and for once, ignore his legion of sycophants and “eaglet” economic advisers. The truth is that Buhari has to look for another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For four years, this hands-on lady effectively managed the economy of this country and ensured a fairly stable economy and currency. All she got in return was insult from wicked and self-seeking people.

When Was the Customs Moved to the Presidency?
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) has been all over town bragging that he reports to President Buhari alone. Ali has turned himself into an Emperor at the Customs, intimidating virtually everybody and turning civil service rules on its head because he has “strong connection” with the president. He thinks he’s bigger than everybody except the president. Many of us will not forget in a hurry his recent spat with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun during the budget defence in the Senate. It was so nauseating listening to the Customs boss telling Adeosun: “I have told you before, I don’t report to you. I report only to the President.” So, is the Customs now an agency in the Presidency? I did some checks in the Presidency and discovered that there was no formal directive to this effect. Ali has simply been taking advantage of his closeness to Buhari. The President should clear this muddle. The Customs boss can’t be bigger than the finance minister. The global standard is for Customs to operate under the finance ministry; ours can’t be an exception. This government should not contemplate placing Customs in the Presidency. Buhari should perish this thought. Again, Ali should sit down and do his job properly instead of bragging around with the name of the president. The revenue from the Customs is still unimpressive. There is still a disconnect between Customs revenue and imports. Our dear feverish Ali must avoid actions and utterances capable of jeopardising his mandate.

That Prickly Amnesty Office Status Report
I have spent quality time going through the 2015 Status Report of the Presidential Amnesty Programme recently submitted to the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public Procurement. Some of the 2015 expenditures were clearly not in the interest of the troubled ex-militants. The issue is not about the contracts passing through tenders’ board and complying with due process. The truth is that some of the expenditures were simply preposterous. For example, I can’t understand why the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) is justifying the purchase of an armoured Lexus for N55 million amidst so much financial crisis in the Amnesty office. This Lexus is clearly for Boro’s comfort. It is very sad to note that the Amnesty Office spent over N157 million on cars within five months of 2015 - One Toyota Land Cruiser at N25.85 million; four Toyota Camry and four Toyota Hilux 4WD at N75.35 million. The N510 million paid to Westerfield College by the Amnesty Office to prepare 150 Amnesty students for one-year advanced level programme was also outrageous. This is about N3.4 million per student. There is also the need to review the huge forex being spent on students in foreign universities by the Amnesty office. The N10.4 billion expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances, accommodation and books for students offshore and onshore last year is frightening. I am very sure that the students sent abroad got the bulk of this N10.4 billion. Boro should patronise Nigerian universities and save our dear country this huge forex outflow. The exception should be for courses not available in Nigeria.

Letter to Akinwunmi Ambode
Dear Governor Ambode, I hope this letter meets you in good health. I saw you on television a couple of weeks back lamenting the poor state of inner roads in Ayobo. You need to note that the situation of roads in the blighted communities of Ikorodu West and Ikorodu North LCDAs is worse than what you saw at Ayobo. I am sure that you must have heard of Ori-Okuta and Efunlaruja communities in Ikorodu West LCDA. In some streets here, you will need to park your vehicles several streets away when it rains. It is so bad. Some craters can swallow a whole vehicle. In the entire LCDA with over 500 roads, only three roads have asphalt on them. Here, there is nothing like public water supply or health centre. The only public secondary school inside Isawo (Isawo High School) is in Shambles. These two LCDAs are like war zones. My dear Ambode, I am disappointed that you have not deemed it fit to visit these areas after almost nine months in office. You cannot claim ignorance of the level of suffering in these two LCDAs. You have to redeem your image by taking steps to ameliorate this pain. The people are impatiently waiting.

War against Dubious Miracles and Prophecies
It is heart-warming to note that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) is moving against fraudulent priests renowned for “market place prophecies and visions, charismatic display of talents and material salvation.’’ How I wish the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria will also call its members to order on these issues. There are too many charlatans out there masquerading as clerics and duping gullible Nigerians in the name of God.

The President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama concurred with what I have always advocated when he admonished priests to shun worldliness and materialism.

Kaigama declared: “Don’t succumb to the temptation of importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality and curry favour.
We must not be frightened into believing in God of ‘now, now’, cajoled by mouth-watering material attractions or ostentatious living of some ministers of God.

We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity. All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause psychological disposition.
We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal change.’’
Except for the likes of Father Mbaka in the Catholic Church, this problem of avaricious clerics wooing people with material things or moral coercion is more in most of the Pentecostal churches.

Most pentecostal clerics operate with dramatic displays, flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy, dubious gifts of speaking in tongues, miracles and prophecies all aimed at milking followers. The PFN must rinse its house of these swindlers.

RingTrue with Yemi Adebowale, Email ; yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms only); 07013940521

I never in my wildest imagination thought that our dear Naira would ever depreciate to the level we are witnessing in the last few weeks. I had all along been expressing displeasure about the sliding Naira because of the slipshod economic policies of the Buhari administration, but I never envisaged that it would become this bad. About nine months ago when Goodluck Jonathan handed over to Muhammadu Buhari, the Naira was exchanging at about N220/$. Then, many were very angry and cast aspersions on the Jonathan administration for allegedly mismanaging the economy.

Now that the exchange rate has become extremely ridiculous, this set of people who protested against N220/$ are nowhere to be found. Our scruffy currency was yesterday exchanging at N371/$ at the parallel market following continued scarcity of the greenback. How can our dear Naira be exchanging at such an outlandish rate? Our symbol of statehood has never been this badly battered in the 55 years history of this country. We have never had it so bad. Clearly, these are signs of a badly managed economy.

It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language” of the President. The global standard is for a forward-looking government to come up with hard-headed policies to shore-up the value of its currencies. Such a government must also show by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the value of its currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single pragmatic policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All we’ve seen were cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that gave us no result. At a point, the Buhari administration placed all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of domiciliary accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.

Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this administration and its apologists have been spending precious time blaming crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan administration for our economic woes. They often forget that almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also affected by falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the falling oil prices. As a result, their currencies are not plummeting as much as the Naira is doing. A government that has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely has no business in power.

The manufacturing sector that would have helped to eo.susan ase the pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan may not be the best in terms of what this country desires in a president, but during his administration, some of these manufacturers were exporting to other West African countries and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan, our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity utilisation went up substantially. All sorts of stifling policies rolled out in the last nine months have combined to incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in electricity tariffs and policy somersaults are creating more problems for Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or relocated to other West African countries where production environment is conducive. Many can now understand why the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture faulted all the policies designed by the Buhari administration to stimulate the economy and salvage the Naira.

Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left me wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the Naira. This government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with huge foreign exchange components. By official figures, this administration spent N2.3 billion maintaining the ten aircraft in the Presidential fleet in the last five months of 2015. The bulk of this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same aircraft maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are talking about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our globetrotting President and his ministers must also cut their foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying governors must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again, why should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex to pilgrims at concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last year. Our president has to put aside sentiment and do the needful to save the Naira.
Our CBN has obviously failed in its core mandate of ensuring stability of the Naira. It must start employing rational strategies to prevent further depreciation of this currency.

Virtually all the policies put in place by the CBN to enhance the Naira were cosmetic. This is why we are getting this negative result. This government must allow the exchange rate to be determined by market forces but with some moderation by the CBN. The era of regulated inter-bank rate must come to an end. As suggested by MAN, the Naira should be allowed to float freely within a bracket. We don’t have adequate reserves to keep holding the naira at the so-called inter-bank rate. Illogical administrative controls and restrictions by the CBN are killing the Naira. This inter-bank rate is simply a paddy paddy arrangement involving government officials, banks and the CBN. If Buhari is genuinely interested in turning around this country, USD from the CBN should be sold at market price, with modulations. With this, forex round-tripping will die a natural death. This is the only way our battered Naira can appreciate.

Again, this administration has always been talking about diversifying the economy to reduce reliance on crude oil as our source of foreign exchange. It has been all talk and no action in the last nine months. It is very sad to note that Buhari lacks any blueprint on this much-talked about diversification. I challenge the president and his men to bring out any such document if it exists. They have simply been showboating. Buhari must get serious about the diversification of our economy. He has to genuinely start looking towards agriculture and solid minerals as sources of forex. He should also look towards gas, particularly the completion of Brass LNG project. He must genuinely encourage indigenous production and exports to enhance the Naira. The government must also implement policies that would stimulate foreign direct investments so as to grow its sources of forex.

Above all, our President must seek advice from competent economists and for once, ignore his legion of sycophants and “eaglet” economic advisers. The truth is that Buhari has to look for another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For four years, this hands-on lady effectively managed the economy of this country and ensured a fairly stable economy and currency. All she got in return was insult from wicked and self-seeking people.

When Was the Customs Moved to the Presidency?
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) has been all over town bragging that he reports to President Buhari alone. Ali has turned himself into an Emperor at the Customs, intimidating virtually everybody and turning civil service rules on its head because he has “strong connection” with the president. He thinks he’s bigger than everybody except the president. Many of us will not forget in a hurry his recent spat with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun during the budget defence in the Senate. It was so nauseating listening to the Customs boss telling Adeosun: “I have told you before, I don’t report to you. I report only to the President.” So, is the Customs now an agency in the Presidency? I did some checks in the Presidency and discovered that there was no formal directive to this effect. Ali has simply been taking advantage of his closeness to Buhari. The President should clear this muddle. The Customs boss can’t be bigger than the finance minister. The global standard is for Customs to operate under the finance ministry; ours can’t be an exception. This government should not contemplate placing Customs in the Presidency. Buhari should perish this thought. Again, Ali should sit down and do his job properly instead of bragging around with the name of the president. The revenue from the Customs is still unimpressive. There is still a disconnect between Customs revenue and imports. Our dear feverish Ali must avoid actions and utterances capable of jeopardising his mandate.

That Prickly Amnesty Office Status Report
I have spent quality time going through the 2015 Status Report of the Presidential Amnesty Programme recently submitted to the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public Procurement. Some of the 2015 expenditures were clearly not in the interest of the troubled ex-militants. The issue is not about the contracts passing through tenders’ board and complying with due process. The truth is that some of the expenditures were simply preposterous. For example, I can’t understand why the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) is justifying the purchase of an armoured Lexus for N55 million amidst so much financial crisis in the Amnesty office. This Lexus is clearly for Boro’s comfort. It is very sad to note that the Amnesty Office spent over N157 million on cars within five months of 2015 - One Toyota Land Cruiser at N25.85 million; four Toyota Camry and four Toyota Hilux 4WD at N75.35 million. The N510 million paid to Westerfield College by the Amnesty Office to prepare 150 Amnesty students for one-year advanced level programme was also outrageous. This is about N3.4 million per student. There is also the need to review the huge forex being spent on students in foreign universities by the Amnesty office. The N10.4 billion expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances, accommodation and books for students offshore and onshore last year is frightening. I am very sure that the students sent abroad got the bulk of this N10.4 billion. Boro should patronise Nigerian universities and save our dear country this huge forex outflow. The exception should be for courses not available in Nigeria.

Letter to Akinwunmi Ambode
Dear Governor Ambode, I hope this letter meets you in good health. I saw you on television a couple of weeks back lamenting the poor state of inner roads in Ayobo. You need to note that the situation of roads in the blighted communities of Ikorodu West and Ikorodu North LCDAs is worse than what you saw at Ayobo. I am sure that you must have heard of Ori-Okuta and Efunlaruja communities in Ikorodu West LCDA. In some streets here, you will need to park your vehicles several streets away when it rains. It is so bad. Some craters can swallow a whole vehicle. In the entire LCDA with over 500 roads, only three roads have asphalt on them. Here, there is nothing like public water supply or health centre. The only public secondary school inside Isawo (Isawo High School) is in Shambles. These two LCDAs are like war zones. My dear Ambode, I am disappointed that you have not deemed it fit to visit these areas after almost nine months in office. You cannot claim ignorance of the level of suffering in these two LCDAs. You have to redeem your image by taking steps to ameliorate this pain. The people are impatiently waiting.

War against Dubious Miracles and Prophecies
It is heart-warming to note that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) is moving against fraudulent priests renowned for “market place prophecies and visions, charismatic display of talents and material salvation.’’ How I wish the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria will also call its members to order on these issues. There are too many charlatans out there masquerading as clerics and duping gullible Nigerians in the name of God.

The President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama concurred with what I have always advocated when he admonished priests to shun worldliness and materialism.

Kaigama declared: “Don’t succumb to the temptation of importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality and curry favour.
We must not be frightened into believing in God of ‘now, now’, cajoled by mouth-watering material attractions or ostentatious living of some ministers of God.

We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity. All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause psychological disposition.
We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal change.’’
Except for the likes of Father Mbaka in the Catholic Church, this problem of avaricious clerics wooing people with material things or moral coercion is more in most of the Pentecostal churches.

Most pentecostal clerics operate with dramatic displays, flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy, dubious gifts of speaking in tongues, miracles and prophecies all aimed at milking followers. The PFN must rinse its house of these swindlers.

RingTrue with Yemi Adebowale, Email ; yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms only); 07013940521

I never in my wildest imagination thought that our dear Naira would ever depreciate to the level we are witnessing in the last few weeks. I had all along been expressing displeasure about the sliding Naira because of the slipshod economic policies of the Buhari administration, but I never envisaged that it would become this bad. About nine months ago when Goodluck Jonathan handed over to Muhammadu Buhari, the Naira was exchanging at about N220/$. Then, many were very angry and cast aspersions on the Jonathan administration for allegedly mismanaging the economy.

Now that the exchange rate has become extremely ridiculous, this set of people who protested against N220/$ are nowhere to be found. Our scruffy currency was yesterday exchanging at N371/$ at the parallel market following continued scarcity of the greenback. How can our dear Naira be exchanging at such an outlandish rate? Our symbol of statehood has never been this badly battered in the 55 years history of this country. We have never had it so bad. Clearly, these are signs of a badly managed economy.

It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language” of the President. The global standard is for a forward-looking government to come up with hard-headed policies to shore-up the value of its currencies. Such a government must also show by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the value of its currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single pragmatic policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All we’ve seen were cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that gave us no result. At a point, the Buhari administration placed all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of domiciliary accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.

Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this administration and its apologists have been spending precious time blaming crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan administration for our economic woes. They often forget that almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also affected by falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the falling oil prices. As a result, their currencies are not plummeting as much as the Naira is doing. A government that has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely has no business in power.

The manufacturing sector that would have helped to eo.susan ase the pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan may not be the best in terms of what this country desires in a president, but during his administration, some of these manufacturers were exporting to other West African countries and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan, our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity utilisation went up substantially. All sorts of stifling policies rolled out in the last nine months have combined to incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in electricity tariffs and policy somersaults are creating more problems for Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or relocated to other West African countries where production environment is conducive. Many can now understand why the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture faulted all the policies designed by the Buhari administration to stimulate the economy and salvage the Naira.

Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left me wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the Naira. This government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with huge foreign exchange components. By official figures, this administration spent N2.3 billion maintaining the ten aircraft in the Presidential fleet in the last five months of 2015. The bulk of this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same aircraft maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are talking about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our globetrotting President and his ministers must also cut their foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying governors must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again, why should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex to pilgrims at concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last year. Our president has to put aside sentiment and do the needful to save the Naira.
Our CBN has obviously failed in its core mandate of ensuring stability of the Naira. It must start employing rational strategies to prevent further depreciation of this currency.

Virtually all the policies put in place by the CBN to enhance the Naira were cosmetic. This is why we are getting this negative result. This government must allow the exchange rate to be determined by market forces but with some moderation by the CBN. The era of regulated inter-bank rate must come to an end. As suggested by MAN, the Naira should be allowed to float freely within a bracket. We don’t have adequate reserves to keep holding the naira at the so-called inter-bank rate. Illogical administrative controls and restrictions by the CBN are killing the Naira. This inter-bank rate is simply a paddy paddy arrangement involving government officials, banks and the CBN. If Buhari is genuinely interested in turning around this country, USD from the CBN should be sold at market price, with modulations. With this, forex round-tripping will die a natural death. This is the only way our battered Naira can appreciate.

Again, this administration has always been talking about diversifying the economy to reduce reliance on crude oil as our source of foreign exchange. It has been all talk and no action in the last nine months. It is very sad to note that Buhari lacks any blueprint on this much-talked about diversification. I challenge the president and his men to bring out any such document if it exists. They have simply been showboating. Buhari must get serious about the diversification of our economy. He has to genuinely start looking towards agriculture and solid minerals as sources of forex. He should also look towards gas, particularly the completion of Brass LNG project. He must genuinely encourage indigenous production and exports to enhance the Naira. The government must also implement policies that would stimulate foreign direct investments so as to grow its sources of forex.

Above all, our President must seek advice from competent economists and for once, ignore his legion of sycophants and “eaglet” economic advisers. The truth is that Buhari has to look for another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For four years, this hands-on lady effectively managed the economy of this country and ensured a fairly stable economy and currency. All she got in return was insult from wicked and self-seeking people.

When Was the Customs Moved to the Presidency?
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) has been all over town bragging that he reports to President Buhari alone. Ali has turned himself into an Emperor at the Customs, intimidating virtually everybody and turning civil service rules on its head because he has “strong connection” with the president. He thinks he’s bigger than everybody except the president. Many of us will not forget in a hurry his recent spat with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun during the budget defence in the Senate. It was so nauseating listening to the Customs boss telling Adeosun: “I have told you before, I don’t report to you. I report only to the President.” So, is the Customs now an agency in the Presidency? I did some checks in the Presidency and discovered that there was no formal directive to this effect. Ali has simply been taking advantage of his closeness to Buhari. The President should clear this muddle. The Customs boss can’t be bigger than the finance minister. The global standard is for Customs to operate under the finance ministry; ours can’t be an exception. This government should not contemplate placing Customs in the Presidency. Buhari should perish this thought. Again, Ali should sit down and do his job properly instead of bragging around with the name of the president. The revenue from the Customs is still unimpressive. There is still a disconnect between Customs revenue and imports. Our dear feverish Ali must avoid actions and utterances capable of jeopardising his mandate.

That Prickly Amnesty Office Status Report
I have spent quality time going through the 2015 Status Report of the Presidential Amnesty Programme recently submitted to the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public Procurement. Some of the 2015 expenditures were clearly not in the interest of the troubled ex-militants. The issue is not about the contracts passing through tenders’ board and complying with due process. The truth is that some of the expenditures were simply preposterous. For example, I can’t understand why the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) is justifying the purchase of an armoured Lexus for N55 million amidst so much financial crisis in the Amnesty office. This Lexus is clearly for Boro’s comfort. It is very sad to note that the Amnesty Office spent over N157 million on cars within five months of 2015 - One Toyota Land Cruiser at N25.85 million; four Toyota Camry and four Toyota Hilux 4WD at N75.35 million. The N510 million paid to Westerfield College by the Amnesty Office to prepare 150 Amnesty students for one-year advanced level programme was also outrageous. This is about N3.4 million per student. There is also the need to review the huge forex being spent on students in foreign universities by the Amnesty office. The N10.4 billion expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances, accommodation and books for students offshore and onshore last year is frightening. I am very sure that the students sent abroad got the bulk of this N10.4 billion. Boro should patronise Nigerian universities and save our dear country this huge forex outflow. The exception should be for courses not available in Nigeria.

Letter to Akinwunmi Ambode
Dear Governor Ambode, I hope this letter meets you in good health. I saw you on television a couple of weeks back lamenting the poor state of inner roads in Ayobo. You need to note that the situation of roads in the blighted communities of Ikorodu West and Ikorodu North LCDAs is worse than what you saw at Ayobo. I am sure that you must have heard of Ori-Okuta and Efunlaruja communities in Ikorodu West LCDA. In some streets here, you will need to park your vehicles several streets away when it rains. It is so bad. Some craters can swallow a whole vehicle. In the entire LCDA with over 500 roads, only three roads have asphalt on them. Here, there is nothing like public water supply or health centre. The only public secondary school inside Isawo (Isawo High School) is in Shambles. These two LCDAs are like war zones. My dear Ambode, I am disappointed that you have not deemed it fit to visit these areas after almost nine months in office. You cannot claim ignorance of the level of suffering in these two LCDAs. You have to redeem your image by taking steps to ameliorate this pain. The people are impatiently waiting.

War against Dubious Miracles and Prophecies
It is heart-warming to note that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) is moving against fraudulent priests renowned for “market place prophecies and visions, charismatic display of talents and material salvation.’’ How I wish the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria will also call its members to order on these issues. There are too many charlatans out there masquerading as clerics and duping gullible Nigerians in the name of God.

The President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama concurred with what I have always advocated when he admonished priests to shun worldliness and materialism.

Kaigama declared: “Don’t succumb to the temptation of importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality and curry favour.
We must not be frightened into believing in God of ‘now, now’, cajoled by mouth-watering material attractions or ostentatious living of some ministers of God.

We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity. All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause psychological disposition.
We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal change.’’
Except for the likes of Father Mbaka in the Catholic Church, this problem of avaricious clerics wooing people with material things or moral coercion is more in most of the Pentecostal churches.

Most pentecostal clerics operate with dramatic displays, flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy, dubious gifts of speaking in tongues, miracles and prophecies all aimed at milking followers. The PFN must rinse its house of these swindlers.

RingTrue with Yemi Adebowale, Email ; yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms only); 07013940521

I never in my wildest imagination thought that our dear Naira would ever depreciate to the level we are witnessing in the last few weeks. I had all along been expressing displeasure about the sliding Naira because of the slipshod economic policies of the Buhari administration, but I never envisaged that it would become this bad. About nine months ago when Goodluck Jonathan handed over to Muhammadu Buhari, the Naira was exchanging at about N220/$. Then, many were very angry and cast aspersions on the Jonathan administration for allegedly mismanaging the economy.

Now that the exchange rate has become extremely ridiculous, this set of people who protested against N220/$ are nowhere to be found. Our scruffy currency was yesterday exchanging at N371/$ at the parallel market following continued scarcity of the greenback. How can our dear Naira be exchanging at such an outlandish rate? Our symbol of statehood has never been this badly battered in the 55 years history of this country. We have never had it so bad. Clearly, these are signs of a badly managed economy.

It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language” of the President. The global standard is for a forward-looking government to come up with hard-headed policies to shore-up the value of its currencies. Such a government must also show by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the value of its currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single pragmatic policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All we’ve seen were cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that gave us no result. At a point, the Buhari administration placed all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of domiciliary accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.

Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this administration and its apologists have been spending precious time blaming crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan administration for our economic woes. They often forget that almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also affected by falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the falling oil prices. As a result, their currencies are not plummeting as much as the Naira is doing. A government that has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely has no business in power.

The manufacturing sector that would have helped to eo.susan ase the pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan may not be the best in terms of what this country desires in a president, but during his administration, some of these manufacturers were exporting to other West African countries and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan, our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity utilisation went up substantially. All sorts of stifling policies rolled out in the last nine months have combined to incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in electricity tariffs and policy somersaults are creating more problems for Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or relocated to other West African countries where production environment is conducive. Many can now understand why the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture faulted all the policies designed by the Buhari administration to stimulate the economy and salvage the Naira.

Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left me wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the Naira. This government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with huge foreign exchange components. By official figures, this administration spent N2.3 billion maintaining the ten aircraft in the Presidential fleet in the last five months of 2015. The bulk of this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same aircraft maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are talking about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our globetrotting President and his ministers must also cut their foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying governors must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again, why should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex to pilgrims at concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last year. Our president has to put aside sentiment and do the needful to save the Naira.
Our CBN has obviously failed in its core mandate of ensuring stability of the Naira. It must start employing rational strategies to prevent further depreciation of this currency.

Virtually all the policies put in place by the CBN to enhance the Naira were cosmetic. This is why we are getting this negative result. This government must allow the exchange rate to be determined by market forces but with some moderation by the CBN. The era of regulated inter-bank rate must come to an end. As suggested by MAN, the Naira should be allowed to float freely within a bracket. We don’t have adequate reserves to keep holding the naira at the so-called inter-bank rate. Illogical administrative controls and restrictions by the CBN are killing the Naira. This inter-bank rate is simply a paddy paddy arrangement involving government officials, banks and the CBN. If Buhari is genuinely interested in turning around this country, USD from the CBN should be sold at market price, with modulations. With this, forex round-tripping will die a natural death. This is the only way our battered Naira can appreciate.

Again, this administration has always been talking about diversifying the economy to reduce reliance on crude oil as our source of foreign exchange. It has been all talk and no action in the last nine months. It is very sad to note that Buhari lacks any blueprint on this much-talked about diversification. I challenge the president and his men to bring out any such document if it exists. They have simply been showboating. Buhari must get serious about the diversification of our economy. He has to genuinely start looking towards agriculture and solid minerals as sources of forex. He should also look towards gas, particularly the completion of Brass LNG project. He must genuinely encourage indigenous production and exports to enhance the Naira. The government must also implement policies that would stimulate foreign direct investments so as to grow its sources of forex.

Above all, our President must seek advice from competent economists and for once, ignore his legion of sycophants and “eaglet” economic advisers. The truth is that Buhari has to look for another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For four years, this hands-on lady effectively managed the economy of this country and ensured a fairly stable economy and currency. All she got in return was insult from wicked and self-seeking people.

When Was the Customs Moved to the Presidency?
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) has been all over town bragging that he reports to President Buhari alone. Ali has turned himself into an Emperor at the Customs, intimidating virtually everybody and turning civil service rules on its head because he has “strong connection” with the president. He thinks he’s bigger than everybody except the president. Many of us will not forget in a hurry his recent spat with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun during the budget defence in the Senate. It was so nauseating listening to the Customs boss telling Adeosun: “I have told you before, I don’t report to you. I report only to the President.” So, is the Customs now an agency in the Presidency? I did some checks in the Presidency and discovered that there was no formal directive to this effect. Ali has simply been taking advantage of his closeness to Buhari. The President should clear this muddle. The Customs boss can’t be bigger than the finance minister. The global standard is for Customs to operate under the finance ministry; ours can’t be an exception. This government should not contemplate placing Customs in the Presidency. Buhari should perish this thought. Again, Ali should sit down and do his job properly instead of bragging around with the name of the president. The revenue from the Customs is still unimpressive. There is still a disconnect between Customs revenue and imports. Our dear feverish Ali must avoid actions and utterances capable of jeopardising his mandate.

That Prickly Amnesty Office Status Report
I have spent quality time going through the 2015 Status Report of the Presidential Amnesty Programme recently submitted to the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public Procurement. Some of the 2015 expenditures were clearly not in the interest of the troubled ex-militants. The issue is not about the contracts passing through tenders’ board and complying with due process. The truth is that some of the expenditures were simply preposterous. For example, I can’t understand why the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) is justifying the purchase of an armoured Lexus for N55 million amidst so much financial crisis in the Amnesty office. This Lexus is clearly for Boro’s comfort. It is very sad to note that the Amnesty Office spent over N157 million on cars within five months of 2015 - One Toyota Land Cruiser at N25.85 million; four Toyota Camry and four Toyota Hilux 4WD at N75.35 million. The N510 million paid to Westerfield College by the Amnesty Office to prepare 150 Amnesty students for one-year advanced level programme was also outrageous. This is about N3.4 million per student. There is also the need to review the huge forex being spent on students in foreign universities by the Amnesty office. The N10.4 billion expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances, accommodation and books for students offshore and onshore last year is frightening. I am very sure that the students sent abroad got the bulk of this N10.4 billion. Boro should patronise Nigerian universities and save our dear country this huge forex outflow. The exception should be for courses not available in Nigeria.

Letter to Akinwunmi Ambode
Dear Governor Ambode, I hope this letter meets you in good health. I saw you on television a couple of weeks back lamenting the poor state of inner roads in Ayobo. You need to note that the situation of roads in the blighted communities of Ikorodu West and Ikorodu North LCDAs is worse than what you saw at Ayobo. I am sure that you must have heard of Ori-Okuta and Efunlaruja communities in Ikorodu West LCDA. In some streets here, you will need to park your vehicles several streets away when it rains. It is so bad. Some craters can swallow a whole vehicle. In the entire LCDA with over 500 roads, only three roads have asphalt on them. Here, there is nothing like public water supply or health centre. The only public secondary school inside Isawo (Isawo High School) is in Shambles. These two LCDAs are like war zones. My dear Ambode, I am disappointed that you have not deemed it fit to visit these areas after almost nine months in office. You cannot claim ignorance of the level of suffering in these two LCDAs. You have to redeem your image by taking steps to ameliorate this pain. The people are impatiently waiting.

War against Dubious Miracles and Prophecies
It is heart-warming to note that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) is moving against fraudulent priests renowned for “market place prophecies and visions, charismatic display of talents and material salvation.’’ How I wish the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria will also call its members to order on these issues. There are too many charlatans out there masquerading as clerics and duping gullible Nigerians in the name of God.

The President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama concurred with what I have always advocated when he admonished priests to shun worldliness and materialism.

Kaigama declared: “Don’t succumb to the temptation of importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality and curry favour.
We must not be frightened into believing in God of ‘now, now’, cajoled by mouth-watering material attractions or ostentatious living of some ministers of God.

We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity. All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause psychological disposition.
We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal change.’’
Except for the likes of Father Mbaka in the Catholic Church, this problem of avaricious clerics wooing people with material things or moral coercion is more in most of the Pentecostal churches.

Most pentecostal clerics operate with dramatic displays, flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy, dubious gifts of speaking in tongues, miracles and prophecies all aimed at milking followers. The PFN must rinse its house of these swindlers.

with Yemi Adebowale, Email ;
yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms only);
07013940521
I never in my wildest imagination thought that our dear Naira
would ever depreciate to the level we are witnessing in the last
few weeks. I had all along been expressing displeasure about the
sliding Naira because of the slipshod economic policies of the
Buhari administration, but I never envisaged that it would
become this bad. About nine months ago when Goodluck
Jonathan handed over to Muhammadu Buhari, the Naira was
exchanging at about N220/$. Then, many were very angry and
cast aspersions on the Jonathan administration for allegedly
mismanaging the economy.
Now that the exchange rate has become extremely ridiculous,
this set of people who protested against N220/$ are nowhere to
be found. Our scruffy currency was yesterday exchanging at
N371/$ at the parallel market following continued scarcity of
the greenback. How can our dear Naira be exchanging at such
an outlandish rate? Our symbol of statehood has never been
this badly battered in the 55 years history of this country. We
have never had it so bad. Clearly, these are signs of a badly
managed economy.
It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and
expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language”
of the President. The global standard is for a forward-looking
government to come up with hard-headed policies to shore-up
the value of its currencies. Such a government must also show
by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the value of its
currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single
pragmatic policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All
we’ve seen were cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that
gave us no result. At a point, the Buhari administration placed
all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of domiciliary
accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.
Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this
administration and its apologists have been spending precious
time blaming crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan
administration for our economic woes. They often forget that
almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also affected by
falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well
because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the
falling oil prices. As a result, their currencies are not
plummeting as much as the Naira is doing. A government that
has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely
has no business in power.
The manufacturing sector that would have helped to eo.susan
ase the pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan
may not be the best in terms of what this country desires in a
president, but during his administration, some of these
manufacturers were exporting to other West African countries
and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan,
our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity
utilisation went up substantially. All sorts of stifling policies
rolled out in the last nine months have combined to
incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in electricity tariffs
and policy somersaults are creating more problems for
Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or
relocated to other West African countries where production
environment is conducive. Many can now understand why the
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian
Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and
Agriculture faulted all the policies designed by the Buhari
administration to stimulate the economy and salvage the Naira.
Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left me
wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the
Naira. This government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with
huge foreign exchange components. By official figures, this
administration spent N2.3 billion maintaining the ten aircraft in
the Presidential fleet in the last five months of 2015. The bulk of
this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same aircraft
maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are
talking about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our
globetrotting President and his ministers must also cut their
foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying governors
must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again,
why should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex
to pilgrims at concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last
year. Our president has to put aside sentiment and do the
needful to save the Naira.
Our CBN has obviously failed in its core mandate of ensuring
stability of the Naira. It must start employing rational strategies
to prevent further depreciation of this currency.
Virtually all the policies put in place by the CBN to enhance the
Naira were cosmetic. This is why we are getting this negative
result. This government must allow the exchange rate to be
determined by market forces but with some moderation by the
CBN. The era of regulated inter-bank rate must come to an end.
As suggested by MAN, the Naira should be allowed to float freely
within a bracket. We don’t have adequate reserves to keep
holding the naira at the so-called inter-bank rate. Illogical
administrative controls and restrictions by the CBN are killing
the Naira. This inter-bank rate is simply a paddy paddy
arrangement involving government officials, banks and the
CBN. If Buhari is genuinely interested in turning around this
country, USD from the CBN should be sold at market price, with
modulations. With this, forex round-tripping will die a natural
death. This is the only way our battered Naira can appreciate.
Again, this administration has always been talking about
diversifying the economy to reduce reliance on crude oil as our
source of foreign exchange. It has been all talk and no action in
the last nine months. It is very sad to note that Buhari lacks any
blueprint on this much-talked about diversification. I challenge
the president and his men to bring out any such document if it
exists. They have simply been showboating. Buhari must get
serious about the diversification of our economy. He has to
genuinely start looking towards agriculture and solid minerals
as sources of forex. He should also look towards gas,
particularly the completion of Brass LNG project. He must
genuinely encourage indigenous production and exports to
enhance the Naira. The government must also implement
policies that would stimulate foreign direct investments so as to
grow its sources of forex.
Above all, our President must seek advice from competent
economists and for once, ignore his legion of sycophants and
“eaglet” economic advisers. The truth is that Buhari has to look
for another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For four years, this hands-on
lady effectively managed the economy of this country and
ensured a fairly stable economy and currency. All she got in
return was insult from wicked and self-seeking people.
When Was the Customs Moved to the Presidency?
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col.
Hameed Ali (Rtd) has been all over town bragging that he
reports to President Buhari alone. Ali has turned himself into an
Emperor at the Customs, intimidating virtually everybody and
turning civil service rules on its head because he has “strong
connection” with the president. He thinks he’s bigger than
everybody except the president. Many of us will not forget in a
hurry his recent spat with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun
during the budget defence in the Senate. It was so nauseating
listening to the Customs boss telling Adeosun: “I have told you
before, I don’t report to you. I report only to the President.” So,
is the Customs now an agency in the Presidency? I did some
checks in the Presidency and discovered that there was no
formal directive to this effect. Ali has simply been taking
advantage of his closeness to Buhari. The President should clear
this muddle. The Customs boss can’t be bigger than the finance
minister. The global standard is for Customs to operate under
the finance ministry; ours can’t be an exception. This
government should not contemplate placing Customs in the
Presidency. Buhari should perish this thought. Again, Ali should
sit down and do his job properly instead of bragging around
with the name of the president. The revenue from the Customs
is still unimpressive. There is still a disconnect between Customs
revenue and imports. Our dear feverish Ali must avoid actions
and utterances capable of jeopardising his mandate.
That Prickly Amnesty Office Status Report
I have spent quality time going through the 2015 Status Report
of the Presidential Amnesty Programme recently submitted to
the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public
Procurement. Some of the 2015 expenditures were clearly not
in the interest of the troubled ex-militants. The issue is not
about the contracts passing through tenders’ board and
complying with due process. The truth is that some of the
expenditures were simply preposterous. For example, I can’t
understand why the Special Adviser to the President on the
Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme,
Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) is justifying the purchase of
an armoured Lexus for N55 million amidst so much financial
crisis in the Amnesty office. This Lexus is clearly for Boro’s
comfort. It is very sad to note that the Amnesty Office spent
over N157 million on cars within five months of 2015 - One
Toyota Land Cruiser at N25.85 million; four Toyota Camry and
four Toyota Hilux 4WD at N75.35 million. The N510 million
paid to Westerfield College by the Amnesty Office to prepare
150 Amnesty students for one-year advanced level programme
was also outrageous. This is about N3.4 million per student.
There is also the need to review the huge forex being spent on
students in foreign universities by the Amnesty office. The
N10.4 billion expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances,
accommodation and books for students offshore and onshore
last year is frightening. I am very sure that the students sent
abroad got the bulk of this N10.4 billion. Boro should patronise
Nigerian universities and save our dear country this huge forex
outflow. The exception should be for courses not available in
Nigeria.
Letter to Akinwunmi Ambode
Dear Governor Ambode, I hope this letter meets you in good
health. I saw you on television a couple of weeks back lamenting
the poor state of inner roads in Ayobo. You need to note that
the situation of roads in the blighted communities of Ikorodu
West and Ikorodu North LCDAs is worse than what you saw at
Ayobo. I am sure that you must have heard of Ori-Okuta and
Efunlaruja communities in Ikorodu West LCDA. In some streets
here, you will need to park your vehicles several streets away
when it rains. It is so bad. Some craters can swallow a whole
vehicle. In the entire LCDA with over 500 roads, only three
roads have asphalt on them. Here, there is nothing like public
water supply or health centre. The only public secondary school
inside Isawo (Isawo High School) is in Shambles. These two
LCDAs are like war zones. My dear Ambode, I am disappointed
that you have not deemed it fit to visit these areas after almost
nine months in office. You cannot claim ignorance of the level
of suffering in these two LCDAs. You have to redeem your image
by taking steps to ameliorate this pain. The people are
impatiently waiting.
War against Dubious Miracles and Prophecies
It is heart-warming to note that the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) is moving against fraudulent
priests renowned for “market place prophecies and visions,
charismatic display of talents and material salvation.’’ How I
wish the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria will also call its
members to order on these issues. There are too many
charlatans out there masquerading as clerics and duping
gullible Nigerians in the name of God.
The President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama
concurred with what I have always advocated when he
admonished priests to shun worldliness and materialism.
Kaigama declared: “Don’t succumb to the temptation of
importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality
and curry favour.
We must not be frightened into believing in God of ‘now, now’,
cajoled by mouth-watering material attractions or ostentatious
living of some ministers of God.
We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without
tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity.
All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions
and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause
psychological disposition.
We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal
change.’’
Except for the likes of Father Mbaka in the Catholic Church, this
problem of avaricious clerics wooing people with material
things or moral coercion is more in most of the Pentecostal
churches.
Most pentecostal clerics operate with dramatic displays,
flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy, dubious gifts of
speaking in tongues, miracles and prophecies all aimed at
milking followers. The PFN must rinse its house of these
swindlers.

HADIZA SULEMAN

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been out of office for the past nine months but she has not disappeared from the headlines. For the past few months, she has been the target of attacks by notable members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and their sympathizers who blame her for every imaginable economic policy of the Goodluck Jonathan presidency they perceive as wrong.

With equanimity, she continues to soak in every attack directed towards her performance in office. She has been relentless in defending the economic policies of the past administration and refuses to accept charges that the government either deliberately encouraged graft or it was not decisive in curtailing it.

The bulk of the allegations of mismanagement has come from Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole who continues to portray her tenure in bad light, even being personal sometimes in his attacks. The woman who presently chairs GAVI, the global vaccine alliance, has not only stood up to Oshiomhole’s deliberate antics of distracting her, she has been able to beat the loquacious former trade unionist into submission with elevated responses and incontrovertible facts.

Lately, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, entered the fray by trying to connect her to the fraud allegations buffeting the Office of the National Security Adviser. In a petition he wrote to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Falana had urged the ICC to prosecute and arrest Okonjo-Iweala for failing to “prevent systematic and widespread corruption” in the previous administration.

He described as “criminal” the transfer of recovered $322 million loot of Sani Abacha, former Nigerian dictator, to , Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the former national security adviser. According to Falana in the petition which he sent to Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor of the ICC, “the failure of a former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to prevent widespread and systematic corruption including the re-looting of the Abacha loot amounts to complicity under the Rome Statute, and therefore fits the legal requirements of a crime against humanity”.

However, the former Minister of Finance who also doubles as Senior Advisor at the financial advisory firm, Lazard, has denied any wrong saying the money was transferred to the former national security adviser after receiving approval of Goodluck Jonathan, the former president and after securing guarantees that the money would be properly accounted for.

In a statement by her media adviser Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, she described Falana as an “integrity challenged charlatan”. She revealed that Falana was desperate to link her with the $2.1bn arms scandal because she “hurt the interests of his corrupt sponsors” during her time in office. “It is sad that a person who had earned some prominence as a human rights lawyer now tramples on the human rights of others as a political jobber,” she said.

The statement said it was “extremely insensitive” for Falana and his sponsors to
level false accusations against Dr Okonjo-Iweala who went through a searing personal ordeal for her principled fight against corruption. It said Falana and his sponsors are engaged in “media harassment, cyber bullying and intimidation against innocent persons” for political and pecuniary gain, and urged Nigerians not to give in to Falana’s self-imposed Chronic Cerebral Amnesia (CCA)”.

Beyond the usual media attention that Falana craves, it is difficult to understand the real purpose of this latest outburst. Since the victory of the APC last year, he has gone to great lengths to pander to the interests of the ruling party. Last October during the nomination of ministers, his name had featured as a possible nominee for the position of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice but he was disappointed by President Muhammadu Buhari. He has also not given any further indication that he will pursue the matter beyond the publicity the petition attracted.

Okonjo-Iweala who has spent 25 years at the World Bank, most recently as a managing director, started her career at the World Bank in 1982. She served twice as Nigeria’s finance minister in what is now Africa’s biggest economy from 2003 to 2006 during which she led the country’s successful debt relief negotiations, and again from 2011 until May 2015. GAVI, the prominent international organization which she chairs, is focused on increasing access to immunization in poor countries around the world.

Published here: http://www.peopleandpolitics.com.ng/2016/02/ngozi-okonjo-iweala-still-holding-her.html

Abuja, February 8, 2016

ALLEGED EFCC INVESTIGATION OF OKONJO-IWEALA: MEDIA HEADLINES ARE MISLEADING AND UNTRUE

We want to clarify that some of the media reports alleging that the EFCC is investigating former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are misleading and untrue. This is clear from eye witness accounts of the Budget 2016 presentation by the EFCC at the House of Representatives and gaps in the reported stories.

The headlines are a misrepresentation of what the EFCC Chairman actually said during the event.

While the headlines claimed that the EFCC Chairman, in response to a question by an APC member Hon Razak Atunwa, stated that Dr Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation, the actual words quoted in the same reports told a very different story.

His words:

“Very soon we will go into the petroleum industry. Such investigation requires that we have to build capacity, we have to bring in experts to enable us tackle what we are doing properly and the investigation must be conducted properly. We have internal lawyers and external lawyers. We have to pay insurance…”

The words said to have been spoken by the EFCC Chairman cannot support the lurid headlines that Dr Okonjo-Iweala is under investigation by the EFCC.

The Nigerian media plays an important role in our democracy and we urge them to be fair, balanced and factual in their reports.

Paul C Nwabuikwu

Media Adviser to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

This should stop! Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is representing Nigeria well at the world bank, let’s not disturb her work and allow her to focus on making policies that would make the world a better place for all of us.

Lets not go there again. What exactly do people want to gain from all this. See, I still believe that all these things are political, how on earth would someone just wake up one morning and write all this to tackle some that chose to serve her country.

Let’s focus on the obvious and not pay evil for good. During Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s tenure as Finance Minister, Nigeria became the biggest economy in Africa, overtaking South Africa in 2014. She was credited with the measures taken to turn Nigeria around. So Starting to drag someone who has been a major part of Nigeria’s development into the mud should not come up at all.