Osinbajo says Buhari administration will inherit nigeria's worst economy
has said the Muhammadu Buhari-led government
will inherit the worst economy ever in the history
of the nation.
Also, a former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
has advised Buhari to take advantage of the
country’s current level of public support for him
to take hard decisions.
Osinbajo and Blair spoke during the opening of a
two-day Policy Dialogue on the Implementation of
the Agenda for Change, which began in Abuja on
Wednesday.
Osinbajo put the nation’s local and international
debt profile at US$60bn with a 2015 debt-serving
bill of N953.6bn, representing 21 per cent of this
year’s budget.
He noted that an estimated 110 million out of the
nation’s over 170 million population, were living
in extreme poverty while the largest chunk of the
benefits of the nation’s wealth was going into the
pockets of a small percentage of the population.
According to him, the nation’s dwindling oil
revenues has made it difficult for 24 of Nigeria’s
36 states to pay salaries.
He said, “We are concerned that our economy is
currently in perhaps its worst moment in history.
Local and international debts stand at US$ 60bn.
“Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6bn, 21
per cent of our budget. On account of severely
dwindled resources, over two-thirds of the states
in Nigeria owe salaries.
“Federal institutions are not in much better
shape. Today, the nation borrows to fund
recurrent expenditure.”
Osinbajo said the manifesto of the All
Progressives Congress “offers a vision of shared
prosperity and socio-economic inclusion for all
Nigerians that leaves no one behind in the pursuit
of a prosperous and fulfilling life.”
According to him, the goal of the policy dialogue
is to interrogate the positions and propositions
before a wider audience and to launch a robust
public conversation on policy directions and
priorities that would help inform the incoming
administration’s approach in the next four years.
He added that the “forum exemplifies the sort of
consultative and consensual approach to policy-
making that the APC and the new administration
intend to model in office.”
The Vice President-elect also declared that the
dialogue intended to explore a wide range of
policy priorities including the diversification of the
economy in the wake of dwindling oil revenues.
To achieve this, he said, the administration would
engender job-led growth through the
revitalization of the agricultural sector in pursuit
of job creation and food security, improving the
regulatory frameworks in the most strategic
sphere of economic activity.
Blair, who was represented by a former Secretary
of State for Trade and Industry, Mr. Peter
Mandelson, explained that with the current state
of affairs, the task ahead of the incoming
administration was indeed a daunting one.
Drawing from the experiences of the Labour Party
in Britain, Blair said the first rule of governance
“is be true to your word; be true to your
mandate.”
He urged the Buhari-led administration not to be
afraid to take hard decisions but said it must
remain mindful of the timing of such decisions.
Blair also advised the administration not to
attempt to do everything at once but to ensure
that things were done with proper planning along
with a commitment to deliver.
He said, “You will have more goodwill and moral
authority to do the difficult things at the beginning
of your term than at the end. President (Joko)
Widodo of Indonesia was elected in July last year,
with huge public support.
“One of the first things he did when he was
inaugurated in October was to smash Indonesia’s
hugely expensive and inefficient, yet popular fuel
subsidy.
“A policy decision which had toppled a previous
administration and consistently brought people
out on the streets, he decided to do it straight
away when he had the authority that was the
time.”
This, Blair explained, cushioned the effect of the
recent fall in oil prices in the world market on the
Indonesian economy.
He also stressed the importance of
communication which, he said, was vital in
democracy because “it is both the means of
convincing people and getting them to keep
following you once you are elected.”
“Strategy without communication is like a car
without headlights,” he added.
The British politician also stressed the need for
the government to focus on priorities and ensure
service delivery.
Blair also advised the administration to create a
mechanism that would focus on its priorities
even in the midst of other challenges.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director,
Policy Research and Strategy Directorate of the
APC, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had said, “The phase of
policy conception is over and we are entering the
phase of execution, governance and of providing
tangible developmental deliverables.
“The challenge of translating ideas into policy and
praxis now looms large.
“Given the degree of work that has been put in by
the directorate and our well-documented national
problems of policy implementation, the focus
should now be on evolving an institutional
framework to deliver the agenda for change.”
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