P
ProfRem
Guest
Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State explains why the economic policies of President Buhari must be supported by Nigerians.
Governor Badaru in an interview with DailyTrust newspaper, said: “by 2015, the country’s economy was on life support and was literally handed over to the APC government on a stretcher.”
“If you bother to add up all the billions that were stolen in the name of security and the rot in the oil sector, you will appreciate the fact that these people were not running a government in the last eight years but simply supervising the organized sharing of public funds amongst themselves.
“It is actually a miracle that the Buhari administration has been able to come this far without a complete collapse of the economy and the government, such as we are seeing in Venezuela, which had the same toxic combination of a collapsing mono economy and an uncaring administration”.
He said he has believed that the federal government led by President Muhamamdu Buhari has done remarkably well considering the situation we found ourselves after May 29th 2015 swearing day.
“People tend to forget that the economic downturn actually started manifesting in 2014, due to a growing mismatch between the profligate and reckless spending by the previous government, fueled by high oil prices and the resultant shock to the system when prices started to fall. Nigeria’s case was worsened by the fact that with the falling oil prices, our production targets were affected by militant activities in the Niger Delta and outright theft of the nation’s crude oil on a massive scale, perpetrated with the full backing of government officials.
On Free Fall of Naira
He said: “exchange rates are largely a reflection of the confidence people have in any particular currency, and rates are not dependent on what President Buhari or the CBN governor decrees them to be.
“The indices are your foreign exchange reserves, your trade balance or imbalance and the perception of future outlook. So, there is no way to support a N160 to the dollar rate that was prevalent in a $110 per dollar oil price regimen, and $60 billion reserve scenario with what we have at the moment”.
“We need to diversify our economy and push towards a basket of export commodities that will shore up foreign earnings while concurrently weaning ourselves off foreign non-essential consumer goods that continuously put pressure on the naira, otherwise demand, dollar supply and perception will continue to hold sway in rate determination.
“We are on the path to recovery and the outlook is very good, with focus and reorientation we are seeing a threefold increase in rice yield per hectare this harvest season and in a lot of states like Kebbi, Ebonyi etc the story is the same. If dwindling oil prices force us back to the farm and this in turn ensures food security in two to three years, Nigeria will be back to the glory years”, he said.
Governor Badaru in an interview with DailyTrust newspaper, said: “by 2015, the country’s economy was on life support and was literally handed over to the APC government on a stretcher.”
“If you bother to add up all the billions that were stolen in the name of security and the rot in the oil sector, you will appreciate the fact that these people were not running a government in the last eight years but simply supervising the organized sharing of public funds amongst themselves.
“It is actually a miracle that the Buhari administration has been able to come this far without a complete collapse of the economy and the government, such as we are seeing in Venezuela, which had the same toxic combination of a collapsing mono economy and an uncaring administration”.
He said he has believed that the federal government led by President Muhamamdu Buhari has done remarkably well considering the situation we found ourselves after May 29th 2015 swearing day.
“People tend to forget that the economic downturn actually started manifesting in 2014, due to a growing mismatch between the profligate and reckless spending by the previous government, fueled by high oil prices and the resultant shock to the system when prices started to fall. Nigeria’s case was worsened by the fact that with the falling oil prices, our production targets were affected by militant activities in the Niger Delta and outright theft of the nation’s crude oil on a massive scale, perpetrated with the full backing of government officials.
On Free Fall of Naira
He said: “exchange rates are largely a reflection of the confidence people have in any particular currency, and rates are not dependent on what President Buhari or the CBN governor decrees them to be.
“The indices are your foreign exchange reserves, your trade balance or imbalance and the perception of future outlook. So, there is no way to support a N160 to the dollar rate that was prevalent in a $110 per dollar oil price regimen, and $60 billion reserve scenario with what we have at the moment”.
“We need to diversify our economy and push towards a basket of export commodities that will shore up foreign earnings while concurrently weaning ourselves off foreign non-essential consumer goods that continuously put pressure on the naira, otherwise demand, dollar supply and perception will continue to hold sway in rate determination.
“We are on the path to recovery and the outlook is very good, with focus and reorientation we are seeing a threefold increase in rice yield per hectare this harvest season and in a lot of states like Kebbi, Ebonyi etc the story is the same. If dwindling oil prices force us back to the farm and this in turn ensures food security in two to three years, Nigeria will be back to the glory years”, he said.