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In this article by Emmanuel Onwubiko, the writer speaks on the irony of the fact that the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, was celebrated for her role in getting Nigeria out of international debt, but now it looks like she may be returning us back to the debts.
The writer surmises that the reason Nigeria is in debt has nothing to do with esoteric crude oil numbers, but on Nigeria's lavish spending. Where austerity measures have been applied to the maximum possible limit on the groaning masses, might it not be wise, now, the swing that belt-tightening regimen to the seat of power?
Read below:
Crude oil asking price per barrel in the international market is reported to have slumped far lower than the budget projection of a little over $75 USD. This, coupled with the unfortunate scenario of the United States of America not buying Nigeria’s huge crude oil exports are said to be the major fear factor why Nigeria’s external reserves have plummeted to an all time low since 1999.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was at her wits best the other day when she briefed the National Assembly. She had raised the issue of imminent economic crunch that may befall Nigeria unless in her words ‘we learn to do belt tightening in the way we live as a nation”. The coordinating minister for the Nigerian economy is one fortuitous Nigerian public officer that can be said to have seen it all in the area of managing the nation’s economy given the fact that she has remained consistent like the Northern star in the Nigerian political firmament since early 2003 or so when she was ‘borrowed’ by the then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration to head the Ministry of Finance before being reshuffled to the less fancied Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to her exit but again emerged as the Minister of Finance under the current dispensation since the current President became Acting President in 2010 and then was reappointed after the current Head of State and Head of government, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, won election for his first full four-year tenure since 2011.
In her first stint as the finance minister, she was credited with the role of moving Nigeria away from the notorious club of the heavily indebted nations when she negotiated what she called soft landing with the Paris Club and the London Club which led to the waiving aside of a huge chunk of the so called foreign debts that were accumulated although through fraudulent methodology by successive administrations.
Click here to read more
Source: #TheSun
The writer surmises that the reason Nigeria is in debt has nothing to do with esoteric crude oil numbers, but on Nigeria's lavish spending. Where austerity measures have been applied to the maximum possible limit on the groaning masses, might it not be wise, now, the swing that belt-tightening regimen to the seat of power?
Read below:
Crude oil asking price per barrel in the international market is reported to have slumped far lower than the budget projection of a little over $75 USD. This, coupled with the unfortunate scenario of the United States of America not buying Nigeria’s huge crude oil exports are said to be the major fear factor why Nigeria’s external reserves have plummeted to an all time low since 1999.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was at her wits best the other day when she briefed the National Assembly. She had raised the issue of imminent economic crunch that may befall Nigeria unless in her words ‘we learn to do belt tightening in the way we live as a nation”. The coordinating minister for the Nigerian economy is one fortuitous Nigerian public officer that can be said to have seen it all in the area of managing the nation’s economy given the fact that she has remained consistent like the Northern star in the Nigerian political firmament since early 2003 or so when she was ‘borrowed’ by the then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration to head the Ministry of Finance before being reshuffled to the less fancied Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to her exit but again emerged as the Minister of Finance under the current dispensation since the current President became Acting President in 2010 and then was reappointed after the current Head of State and Head of government, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, won election for his first full four-year tenure since 2011.
In her first stint as the finance minister, she was credited with the role of moving Nigeria away from the notorious club of the heavily indebted nations when she negotiated what she called soft landing with the Paris Club and the London Club which led to the waiving aside of a huge chunk of the so called foreign debts that were accumulated although through fraudulent methodology by successive administrations.
Click here to read more
Source: #TheSun