Former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Charles Soludo, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of failing to grasp current economic realities needed to arrest the country’s declining fortunes.
This is coming barely 24 hours after Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, also a former CBN governor, said President Muhammadu Buhari may end up like his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, if he doesn’t change his economic policies.
Soludo spoke on Thursday in Kaduna at the Progressive Governors Forum’s 4th Progressive Governance Lecture series with the theme “Building the Economy of States: Challenges of Developing Inclusively-Sustainable Growth.”
“Nigeria is facing unprecedented and tremendous political and economical challenges with global and local dynamics. Regardless of these challenges, opportunities and possibilities abound if we address some fundamental issues. The key to achieving this is to have a development plan that is anchored on realising inclusive and sustainable growth.
“Inclusive and sustainable growth cannot be achieved without conscious efforts to deconstruct the dynasties of poverty and maximise states and Nigeria’s comparative and competitive advantage. Nigeria is not secured and can be made politically sustainable through the de-strangulation of the hold of the Federal Government over states.
“I, therefore, recommend the restructuring of the economy from consumption-driven to production-based and consistency in micro-economic policies. Encouraging fiscal federalism in ways that allow states to have greater control of their resources, evolution of a master plan for mass export-oriented industrialisation that answers the economic questions and realities of today,” he said.
Soludo advised “APC states to develop a peer review mechanism to track, measure and share knowledge, which will distinguish APC states from non-APC states.”
In his remarks, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said: “One of the major problems is with our ability to do things. Nigeria is not a place where there is a shortage of ideas or shortage of intentions. The issue really is getting things done.”
The Vice President said some of the problems may not be resolved within months or a few years. ,
“We are called upon at this time in history to make a difference. And I believe that the times call for creativity, innovation, but more importantly these times call for depending on each other and looking to each other for solution. We cannot operate in silos; we must be able to look to each other for development. I think the solution lies in what is going on in several different states,” he said.
On his part, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said: “Nigeria is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, most of it arising from circumstances of the present and of the past. The worst job in Nigeria today is to be a state governor because we have to deal with inherited problems, which we have a duty to solve. We need a fundamental shift from the ways things were being done in the past.”
