There can never be a perfect Leader. Most leaders
do well in certain respects and fail in other
respects. Also we may never all agree even on one
area the leader has done well or has not done well.
It all depends on the criteria for assessment. As
example, For some people, a political leader has not
done well except he has given them an
appointment, a contract or put money in their
individual pockets. He can kill himself, but as far as
they have received no personal benefit he is no
good. For some others, a political leader can only do
well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from
their Political Party. Therefore, he can commit
‘harakiri’, they will ignore and still commend him
because of their narrow and myopic prism of
assessment. Of course such assessment can be
very biased and injurious. Nevertheless it is their
own criterion for assessment. And yet for the
enlightened others, they use specific and objective
criteria to assess leadership performance. There
may be some colorations and nuances, but that’s
because they are human. And that’s why I am not
really surprised by the recent comments on the
economy raised by Prof Chukwuma Soludo and a
couple of other distinguished Nigerians. On this
score, I endorse Oby Ezekwesili’s call for a debate.
That to me is the civilized way to conduct a
discourse or argument with the objective of
presenting the facts, the figures and insights,
demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do
not subscribe to name calling or demonizing of
Professionals or fellow Nigerians just because our
views do not agree. Not all Nigerians are gullible.
Many have brains that work, processing all the
information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and
throwing the rest into the garbage.
In my many years of Economic advocacy as a
leader in the Manufacturer’s Association of Nigeria
( MAN), the Nigeria Employers’s Consultative
Association(NECA) and the Nigerian Economic
Summit Group( NESG), I have been schooled by the
Professors, the practitioners and economic agents
on what shows good Economic Management and
Bad Economic Management from the Private Sector
Perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to
justify my conviction that when it comes to the
Economy Jonathan has done well, better than many.
. ECONOMIC GROWTH
In the years that Jonathan has been President , our
economy has grown between 6-7%per annum. This
is one of the highest growth rates in the World,
bettered by China and a few other Countries. This is
the compounded growth rate that has driven us to
become the Largest Economy in Africa and the 26th
in the World. If this is not a consequence of good
economic management, please tell me what is.
Even if it happened by ‘luck’, we must still give the
credit to Jonathan’s Government. Because if the
reverse were the case and the economy was in
decline or in stagnation as we had many years ago,
we will still have blamed it on his poor economic
management. If a man can take the flack for failure,
why must we deny him the right to take the credit
for success.
. ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION
For ‘n’ years, where ‘n’ is not less than 30 years,
we had complained that we had a mono economy
where oil was everything. But we were “shocked” to
see that we now have a fairly diversified economy,
led by services at 52%, where oil’s
Contribution to GDP has declined to 14% from over
33% in the hey days! and that even Agriculture had
declined from its dominant 42% to 22% because of
growth in Manufacturing which has climbed from
less than 4% to about 7% and such services as
Telecommunications and Entertainment taking up
measurable positions on the GDP grid at 8.69% and
1.42% respectively. It is not yet déjavu as we still
depended on Crude oil and Gas for about 70% of
National Income until the recent crash of oil prices
which has now moved our non oil revenue to about
47% of the 2015 Budget proposals, bringing oil
revenue to a healthier 53%. If all this are not as a
result of Sound economic policies, some of which
were started by the Previous Governments, then tell
me what is.
MACRO-ECONOMIC STABILITY
For the last four years, Jonathan’s government has
sustained Economic policies that had created a
stable macroeconomic environment. For the first
time in ‘n’ years, our inflation rate dropped to Single
digit. This was a feat previous Governments dreamt
about but could never attain .Until very recently, the
exchange rate remained very stable, operating
within a narrow band. This made naira almost
convertible and allowed Industrialists and importers
plan inventory commitments with greater ease and
less apprehension. Even the Interest rates had been
trending down and for once in a long time, Farmers
and some industrialists were able to obtain credit at
single digit interest rate or very low double digits.
This has happened, because Jonathan gave free
hand to the Professionals in the Central Bank of
Nigeria( CBN) and those in the Ministries of Finance,
Trade and Industry, National Planning, etc to run
with minimum interference. Additionally, he involved
the Private Sector in the Economic Management
Team where they used real market experience to
balance academic economic theories. If this is not
good economic management, please tell me what
is. Some Presidents in some Countries have been
voted out of office because they could not manage
inflation!
AVAILABILITY OF FOOD AND OTHER NECESSITIES
OF LIFE
It is easy to take things for granted when they are
going well, but when they go wrong, we come to
realize that certain things are more important than
others. People can find time to make an issue of the
reduction in our foreign reserves, because we have
plenty of food in the market. To be sincere, Nigeria
has had an abundance of food. Thanks be to God
and thanks be to a revamped Agricultural
environment. Iam personally surprised that after the
recent devaluation of the currency, and some
adjustment in the Monetary Policy Rate( MPR), the
prices of food items in the market remain fairly
stable, keeping overal inflation much lower than I
had predicted which indicates a higher proportion of
locally produced food items. Does anybody
remember 1984-1986, when we had to queue for
food items and other necessities,including soaps
and detergents in Leventis Stores and other shops.
The days of essential commodities( Essenco) and
import licensing when many companies including
mine downsized or closed down because they could
not bribe to get enough import licence .
I am sure Nigerians have taken for granted the
availability of Petrol and diesel. In the last couple of
years, except for occasional hiccups caused by
striking workers( NUPENG & PENGASAN), we have
had almost hassle -free availability of Petrol and
Diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the
Nation selling at controlled and deregulated prices,
depending on your distance from Abuja or Lagos.
What is more, the price of diesel began to come
down, helping to reduce cost of production for
industrialists. I have lived in this Country for long,
and from the Military to now, we have never had a
better supply situation. Many times in the past, we
have spent valuable time running around looking for
fuel and sometimes ending up with adulterated or
foul fuel. I stand to be corrected.
If all these have not happened because of good
economic management, then tell me what is.
REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT
The growing unemployment in Nigeria hit the peak
in 2010 following the Global economic crisis which
caused a shrinking of the global economy. In
2011unemployment rate in the general population
was nearly 24% with Youth Unemployment reaching
nearly 50%. But as today overal unemployment has
declined to less than 20%( Actually about 15% in the
first half of 2014 according to National Bureau of
Statistics) and Youth unemployment has gone down
to less than 38%. Though these changes may not
look as dramatic we would wish, but they have
occurred by two pronged approach pursued by
Jonathan- Supporting a revival of the Agricultural,
industrial, Entertainment, and several other sectors
of the economy to provide opportunities for
absorbing the youth from the private sector angle
and the various efforts being made to create jobs in
the Public sector especially through the Various
safety net projects of the Subsidy Reinvestment and
Empowerment Program( SURE-P). From the
Community, Social Women and Youth Employment
( CSWYE) Program, over 180,000 Youth & Women
have been employed, over 10,000 Healthworkers
( midwives, Nurses and Community Healthworkers)
have been employed, over 5000 Youths have been
trained through the Technical Vocational Educational
Training in different Skills and vocations and
deployed to several industries while 15000 Have
been employed by FERMA in road repairs and
Vegetation control, nearly 50,000 hitherto
Unemployed graduates have been given jobs
through the Graduate Internship Scheme( GIS)
across the Nation. The YOUWIN Programme has
enabled several Young Nigerians( especially
Women) to receive grant from the Federal Ministry
of Finance to set up new businesses through which
they have employed other youths. The determined
implementation of the local content law in the oil
and gas and else where in the economy has
created more jobs and more wealth for Nigerians. If
these efforts to create jobs directly and indirectly
that have led to measurable improvement in the
unemployment rate over the last four years do not
amount to good economic management, then tell me
what is.
PRO- BUSINESS POLICIES/ PROGRAMS
Jonathan’s Government has introduced several
policies and programs that are supportive of
Businesses, especially local Production. The Pro-
Agric policies and programs are well advertised,
making it possible for a new generation of Agric
Entrepreneurs( Nagropreneurs ) to obtain loans at
9%, in addition to unprecedented support to
agriculture with a focus on developing the
Agriculture value chain. I already referred to the
higher level of local food production which has
helped to moderate inflation. There is a new
Industrial Revolution policy which is focusing on
supporting local industrial output. We have seen
unprecedented expansion in the Cement Industry
which is taking the Country to the level of self-
sufficiency in Cement production with possibility of
Exporting the excess in the near future. Have we
soon forgotten the Cement armada spectacle where
our ports were clogged with cement import from all
over the World. Like it or not, the local Auto Industry
is coming back to life with the new National Auto
Policy which seeks to discourage unbridled
importation of all kinds of automobiles from all over
the World. Many of the World auto companies have
started to invest in local production plants. This
industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many
Industries including mine-the Pharmaceutical where
the federal Government has supported a number of
local manufacturers to obtain the WHO GMP
certification in the last one year, which hitherto had
been practically impossible. Now these companies
can compete with International and Multinational
companies for global supplies. The Privitization and
the Deregulation Policy which Jonathan has been
‘forcefully’ implementing has virtually transferred
power for Electric power to the Private Sector.
Though the level of expected improvement has not
been attained, we have brought the 15-year story of
unbundling NEPA to a closure with reasonable
expectation that new investment will flow to truly
sort out our Electric Power needs, especially if
Goverment finally sells the Transmission
infrastructure . I believe the deregulation of the
down stream Petroleum sector will be completed
soon and the multiplier effect on the economy will
be unleashed. For me the fight against corruption
will get strong fillip when we remove the power of
discretion and patronage from these sectors
through Privitisation and deregulation . Since we
deregulated Telecommunications, corruption in that
sector has died and been buried. That is more
effective than sending ten Managing Directors of
NITEL to Kirikiri. Not that I am opposed to punishing
the guilty. Corruption in Power is in ‘coma’ now and
that in Oil and Gas will soon be gasping for breath
when we fully deregulate the sector. When we bury
the ‘big’corruption in these sectors by these
policies that take the power of discretion from Public
Servants, we can easily deal with ‘smaller’
corruption in government bureaucracy and the
private sector . The level of Policy inconsistency
and flip-flops we used to see in the economy in the
past has significantly declined, creating more
confidence and attracting more investments into the
Country with Nigeria receiving the highest Foreign
Direct Investment ( FDI) in Africa in the last two
years or so despite slowing down in oil and Gas and
the Security scare not withstanding .
I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the
massive investment in rehabilitating major
Highways and Rail lines in our Country. Last
December, I travelled to Kwale from Lagos in five
and half hours and travelled by rail from
Portharcourt to IMO River. The last time I did that
was in 1992. The trains are running again and the
long delayed major road projects like the East -West
Road, the Abuja- Lokoja, Benin-Shagamu, Onitsha-
Enugu-PH, Kano-Maiduguri and the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway are all nearing completion with
significant portions now open to traffic. Have I said
anything about the miracle of remodeling 18
Nigerian Airports in one season, with most of them
fully completed. The impact of good Roads and
other modes of transportation to any economy are
too obvious for any further elaboration. Some
people who are reading this and who may have
joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is
happening in the economy or that Jonathan is
clueless, may be angry at me and may think that I
am campaigning. But these are facts which are
verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible
but we must acknowledge what is the correct
situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer
concerning Security or on other issues but on the
Economy, my verdict is that he has done well,
though could do better. My bible says”Woe unto
them that call evil good and good evil, …that put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter “. May God
have Mercy.
Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa OFR
Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa was the President/Chief
Executive Officer Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, past
Chairman, Nigeria Summit Economic Group.