CAN WE COLLECTIVELY TELL OURSELVES SOME HOME TRUTH.

"No economics, whatsoever can dig us out of the mess we are experiencing in Nigeria in the near future. We are supposed to have a cushion for these sort of times, accrued from the high prices of crude oil viz a viz what our budget was calculated on but PDP dined and wined along the way with the entire largesse even to recovered looted funds. Maybe na them be opec, na now we go learn and it gets worse. I repeat no ECONOMICS can save us within the short run!! The chicken has come home to roost. All we can do is to diversify the economy, borrow more and pray we have good implementation to ride us through. Latest minimum to be out of the mess is 3years if its robust and religiously followed"... Uchewuakor Odinakachukwu
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I totally align with the above submission by my good friend, Uchewuakor Odinakachukwu. It will take Nigeria at least 3 years of consistent, properly focused and passionately pursued fiscal restructuring and management of our economy complimented by a robust monetary policy management for us to be able to dig ourselves out of the hole that the political class working with their private sector cronies pushed us into.
I scrolled back to an article I wrote in 2011 on the need for Nigeria to save for the rainy day, after I saw the way Yar Adua and later Jonathan went on a spending spree and accumulation of huge external debts that Obasanjo extinguished. Obasanjo governed for 8 years, paid off our existing external debts with $18billion and left a huge external reserve of $64billion. Yar Adua/Jonathan , especially, Jonathan inherited a Federal Reserve of $64billion no stockpile of external reserve, and left 2015 with external reserve down to $30billion and external debts up by $9billion. During the 8 years between 2007-2015, Nigeria earned over $604billion from oil sales as against budget benchmark of $442. Which translates to excess crude revenues of $162billion that should have been saved. Jonathan and the 36 governors during these periods will not hear of anything called savings. The $162billlion above the budget benchmark was frittered away. These people squandered our commonwealth. Jonathan was so weak to deal with the recklessness at the center , neither could he muster courage to rein in the profligate governors. Honestly, if Nigeria is China, by now thousands of members of the political class, across party lines would have joined their ancestors.
I get angry when I read poor and hapless Nigerians argue along partisan lines. Whether PDP or APC or LP, outside Buhari and Osibanjo, all the political players both in PDP and APC participated in raping Nigeria silly and putting us in the present precarious positions. I get angry when any of these rogues try to pontificate or sound holier than thou. I am miffed. really really angry. Buhari/Osibanjo must do well to break free/away from any teleguiding manipulators within their spheres and go for broke in recovering our monies irrespective of who is holding it. They should never allow themselves to be seen as playing politics. I have said it before that Nigerians are aware that he election was financed with stolen monies. But we will rejoice, forgive and forget , if he can help us collect the balance of our yams in the hands of his party men as he pursues the collections from the PDP people. They should look out for very competent Nigerians to help them reposition this economy. There should be a cleansing of the top hierarchy of our current monetary and fiscal managers.
If nothing is done urgently, this country will collapse.
May God help Nigeria
....by.. Nnaemeka obiaraeri..