Former Central Bank Gov. Soludo Grades Jonathan
“F” On Economy; Says His Administration The
Worst Ever
A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
Chukwuma Soludo, has delivered a ruthless
evaluation of the Nigerian economy under
President Goodluck Jonathan, ranking the
administration “F” on economic management, and
suggesting the Jonathan government is Nigeria’s
worst as far as the management of the economy is
concerned.
BY INI EKOTT
JAN 26, 2015


A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
Chukwuma Soludo, has delivered a ruthless
evaluation of the Nigerian economy under
President Goodluck Jonathan, ranking the
administration “F” on economic management, and
suggesting the Jonathan government is Nigeria’s
worst as far as the management of the economy is
concerned.
Former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo
Mr. Soludo said while Mr. Jonathan lacks
achievements to point to, or clear future plans as
he seeks re-election, his main challenger, the All
Progressives Congress, APC’s presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, also lacks specific
plans on how to salvage Nigeria’s economy should
he win elections next month.
“My advice to President Jonathan and his handlers
is to stop wasting their time trying to campaign on
his job record. Those who have decided to vote for
him will not do so because he has taken Nigeria to
the moon. His record on the economy is a clear
‘F’ grade,” Mr. Soludo said.
“Everywhere else in the world, government
performance on the economy is measured by
some outcome variables such as: income (GDP
growth rate), stability of prices (inflation and
exchange rate), unemployment rate, poverty rate,
etc.
On all these scores, this government has
performed worse than its immediate predecessor—
Obasanjo regime. If we appropriately adjust for oil
income and debt, then this government is the worst
in our history on the economy.”
Mr. Soludo’s assessment, in a lengthy article
published Sunday, took aim at the government’s
economic policies that have resulted in
unprecedented levels of poverty and
unemployment.
He said the economy appears to be on “auto pilot”
and lambasted the president’s economic team led
by Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a
team “dominated by self-interested and self-
conflicted group of traders and businessmen”.
He said Nigeria has been handed over to economic
racketeers.
“The very people government exists to regulate
have seized the levers of government as
policymakers and most government institutions
have largely been ‘privatized’ to them. Mention
any major government department or agency and
someone will tell you whom it has been ‘allocated’
to, and the person subsequently nominates his
minion to occupy the seat,” he said.
Mr. Soludo said while Nigeria has for years
enjoyed oil boom and increasing budget, poverty
and unemployment reached unprecedented levels
under President Jonathan.
“This is the only government in our history where
rapidly increasing government expenditure was
associated with increasing poverty. The director
general of NBS (National Bureau of Statistics)
stated in his written press conference address in
2011 that about 112 million Nigerians were living
in poverty. Is this the record to defend?” he said.
The former CBN governor said on the other hand,
while the APC promises change, the party and its
candidate, Mr. Buhari, have shockingly offered no
specifics on how its plans will be achieved.
Mr. Soludo said in his estimation, the current level
of poverty and unemployment could only be
reversed with a minimum of 3 million jobs
annually. Mr. Jonathan has pledged 2million jobs
yearly if re-elected, while Mr. Buhari has promised
20,000 new jobs in each state of the federation
annually, raising its total to about 720,000.
Either way, Mr. Soludo said, no party has given
specifics how they will create the jobs to roll back
the level of poverty, which at 71per cent is the
worst in the history in Nigeria.
“This sounds like a quota system and for a
country where the new entrants into the labour
market per annum exceed two million,” he said of
the APC’s offer. “If it was intended as a joke, APC
must please get serious. On the other hand,
President Jonathan targets two million jobs per
annum but his strategy for doing so is a Job
Board— another committee of sort. Sorry, Mr.
President, a Job Board is not a strategy. The
principal job Nigerians hired you to do for them is
to create jobs for them too. You cannot outsource
that job, Sir. Creating 3 million jobs per annum
under the unfolding crisis would task our creativity
and audacity to the limits.”
Mr. Soludo said the government of Mr. Jonathan
lacks excuse for its woeful performance since it
inherited a relatively robust economy and also
enjoyed years of oil boom.
He said instead of building on that outlay, the
Jonathan government not only depleted foreign
reverses, but increased Nigeria’s debt yet again,
without adding a “penny” to the reserves.
Mr. Soludo, a former chief economic adviser to
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said in his
estimation, if the economy had been well managed
during the years if oil boom, Nigeria should have
raked in a minimum of $102bn as foreign reserves,
and would have cut unemployment and maintained
exchange rate at N112 per dollar.
“For comparisons, President Obasanjo met about $
5 billion in foreign reserves, and the average
monthly oil price for the 72 months he was in
office was $38, and yet he left $43 billion in
foreign reserves after paying $12 billion to write-
off Nigeria’s external debt. In the last five years,
the average monthly oil price has been over $100,
and the quantity also higher but our foreign
reserves have been declining and exchange rate
depreciating.
“My calculation is that if the economy was better
managed, our foreign reserves should have been
between $102 –$118 billion and exchange rate
around N112 before the fall in oil prices. As of
now, the reserves should be around $90 billion
and exchange rate no higher than N125 per dollar,”
he said.
Mr. Soludo said solving Nigeria’s electricity
problems is not enough to create jobs as many
believe. He said there are other factors, including
the quality of manpower.
“For example, currently in Nigeria, it is estimated
that more than 60 per cent of graduates of our
educational system are unemployable. You can
understand why many of us are amused when the
government celebrates that it has established
twelve more glorified secondary schools as
universities. I thought they would have told us
how many Nigerian universities made it in the
league of the best 200 universities in the world.
That would have been an achievement,” he said.
He said whoever between Messrs Jonathan and
Buhari is declared winner after February 14
election, he expects a national emergency to de
declared on job creation.
Mr. Soludo praised President Jonathan for refusing
to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement with
the European Union, calling the decision the
president’s most important initiative of his
government to secure the future of the economy,
and wondered why that achievement is not being
celebrated.
Mr. Soludo said if Mr. Buhari rides on the crest of
his party’s touted “change” and wins, the
“honeymoon” will be brief and the pressure will be
immense to magically deliver a new Nigeria with
no corruption, no boko haram or insecurity, jobs
for everyone, no poverty, infrastructure and power
in abundance, etc.
“As a first point, Buhari and his team must realize
that they do not yet have a coherent, credible
agenda that is consistent with the fundamentals of
the economy currently. The APC manifesto
contains some good principles and wish-lists, but
as a blue print for Nigeria’s security and
prosperity, it is largely hollow. The numbers do not
add up. Thus, his first job is to present a credible
development agenda to Nigerians,” he said.
Of Mr. Jonathan, should he be re-elected, Mr.
Soludo said his greatest challenge will be how to
save himself from the stranglehold of his largely
provincial palace jesters who tell him he has done
better than God, and seek out ‘enemies’ and
friends who can help him write his name in
history.
“Propaganda won’t do it,” he said.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/01/26/former-central-bank-gov-soludo-grades-jonathan-“f”-economy-says-his-administration-worst

Waiting for his kinsmen to come and finish him.

Can anything good come out of SaharaReporters

JEITO:
Can anything good come out of SaharaReporters

no now, nothing good will come from them simply because they didn't write to please ur interest.

Good bless soludo for this analysis. Many Nigerians lack political education and are carried away by sweet talking during electioneering campaigns. GEJ shouldn't be graded F only,but also asked to withdraw

Superb