Skip to main content

Okonjo and the Politics of Political Will by Ebelo Goodluck


nijanewsland.blogspot.comRead the article by Ebelo Goodluck below...
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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian Army Intercepts 37 Wives And Children Of Boko Haram Terrorists

The Nigerian army said on Wednesday, that it had intercepted 37 people 37 people , who were suspected to be wives and children of the boko haram terrorists. The army spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, said in a statement that 30 of the escapees, which comprises of eight women and 22 children, were intercepted  on Tuesday at Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe. He said; “On preliminary interrogation, the suspects claimed to have escaped from Boko Haram terrorists’ custody at Kafa and Abagajiri villages in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno,’’ The army spokesman added that seven other people were intercepted on Tuesday, at Kamunya, Yobe state. “They claimed that they escaped from Boko Haram terrorists’ hideout at Goropcha village, Damboa Local Government Area of Borno. “Both sets of escapees are currently being screened and profiled,’’ he said.

I will bang all men in your family if you f**k with me – Heartbroken OAP warns future partner

Kenyan OAP, Anita Raey has revealed that she won't tolerate any form of relationship drama when she finally meets her 'Mr.Right'. The Milele FM presenter, whose heart has been dealt with by a few men in the past, took to her Facebook page to caution her next partner not to misbehave or else face her villainous aftermath. ‘I know every man who wants to date me is on Facebook..So I will use this platform to deliver this message…. I have let a few of you men break my heart..Am angry coz I never learn and will still love another of your species… But I swear if one more man breaks my heart… I will put him through the same shiet… I will f*ck you up so bad you will wish death.. With that said I will bang all men in your family if you f*ck with me… This is coming from a very angry and hurt place… Now Y’all have a lovely night.. PS.. am really a nice person.. Might be hard to believe but I am.’

Nigerian scholars sponsored by Lagos State Gov. arrive Finland for visit. Photo

A group of Nigerian youngsters sponsored by Lagos State Government and their coordinator, Professor Kolawole Raheem, were Thursday, received by head of unit; Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hannu Heinonen, at Finland. The participants, whose trip was funded by Lagos State Ministry of Education, were chosen based on their outstanding performance in school. The visit, however aims at enabling the youngsters have an experience of how the Finnish society works and to offer them the possibility of bringing positive examples back to Nigeria. The participants were especially interested in matters related to environment and construction, as well as the Finnish social security and education systems. These visits that have already become somewhat of a tradition are envisaged to continue in the coming years.