Press Statement below
Our attention has once again been drawn to the recent inconsiderate
statement attributed to the Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru
and similar comments from people of like minds to the effect that the
previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration was responsible
for the current Economic Recession.
It is really disappointing that a notable personality as highly placed
as a State Governor could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian
claims without the benefit of facts. It is either he does not realize
the obligation of speaking responsibly in that position or he is grossly
ill-informed; in which case, we could only try to put the facts before
him, and hoping he would recognize them.
In the first place, this blame is misplaced because our elementary
understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession
is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the
rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial
production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses. Perhaps we
should quote those who should know and tell Governor Badaru that wrong
economic policies of the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led Government
caused the current stagnation and recession in the Country.
Larry Ettah, President of the Nigerian Employers Consultative
Association (NECA) did not mince words when he said few days ago that,
“It is quite evident that the lack of clarity about the economic agenda
of the current government contributed to the current economic stagnation
and recession.” He said further, “In recent times at our AGMs, we have
variously described our operating environment as challenging,
unpredictable, unstable and energy sapping. These words are of course,
true and descriptive of what our members have experienced in keeping
their businesses afloat.”
However beyond that, we make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan
and the People’s Democratic Party Government saw this coming since 2011,
and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru
and his co-travellers who are now in the All Progressives Congress (APC)
frustrated the effort. The former Administration also wanted to
encourage more savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and set up the
Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) but the Badarus of this world who play
politics with serious national issues and were state governors at the
time took the Federal Government to Court and did everything to
frustrate the effort. Thank God some of them are among the ‘best brains’
in the APC Federal Government of today.
Governor Badaru should know that you can't plant grapes and harvest
mangoes. It is no secret that the policies and statements made by key
government actors have not been business friendly and Nigerians and
foreign business men took their hard currencies out of the Country. When
professionals were advising the Government to woo investors, characters
like Badaru were busy de-marketing Nigeria all over the world. They
should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in
recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike
the prevailing situation where a Ruling Party plunges the Economy into
an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly
like a baby.
World history is full of many examples where genuine leaders take over
countries whose economies are stagnated and move them to positive
growth. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President who ruled the United
States from a wheel chair during the time of unprecedented economic
depression and total war, introduced an ambitious programme for relief,
recovery and reform called “the Great Deal”, which began to yield
considerable dividends in weeks and Americans are the better for it
today.
In his first hundred days in office in 1933, Roosevelt was reputed to
have renewed the American spirit and optimism by immediately addressing
the effects of the depression. Through the Great Deal, he introduced a
variety of programmes targeted at getting Americans back to work,
provide relief for the vulnerable, get industry and agriculture back on
their feet, and engender accelerated recovery and economic growth. Or,
how about the recent change of government in the United Kingdom where
the new Prime Minister, Theresa May formed her Cabinet within hours to
ensure that the doubts arising from the uncertainty of Brexit Vote do
not get the better of her citizens?
Badaru and those who still think like him should tell Nigerians the
character of the economic team in place that has been managing the
Nation's economy since 29th of May 2015. This ‘economic management
policy’ of unhealthy propaganda and blaming the previous administration
ceaselessly, will not take us anywhere.
Will Badaru and his Party men continue to blame Jonathan and the PDP
‘till 2019 and use Jonathan for the 2019 campaign instead of showing
their scorecard? The good thing is that Nigerians who were being
hoodwinked at first, are now seeing through the deception of this
unending blame game. It is on record that one APC governor after his
inauguration for his second tenure publicly announced that he inherited
an empty treasury. He was quickly reminded that he couldn't have
inherited empty treasury from himself. This unfortunately, is the face
of the comedy and farce that now characterize governors and governance
in this Country. Any dispassionate assessment of economic performance
under Jonathan would obviously frown at Governor Badaru’s type of
impulsive conclusion without recourse to the strong macroeconomic
fundamentals recorded under Jonathan, which laid the foundation for
meaningful growth.
In particular, despite interfering global downturn, the overall real
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate stood at an average of 5%, a
growth that was largely driven by the non-oil sector in line with the
success of the diversification effort of the Administration. There is no
doubt that there was obvious improvement in inflation pressure which
stood at a single digit and provided the stability and guarantees needed
for the economy to remain stable. It actually borders on ignorance to
claim that no cost cutting measures were introduced when the Jonathan
Administration in one sector was able to reduce its food import bill
from well over N1t to N684.7b as at December 2013 and subsequently cut
it further down with improvements in local food production. Where was
the Governor when Jonathan’s Administration embarked on comprehensive
reforms in different sectors towards infrastructural renewal, promotion
of sustainable development and the growth of the Nation’s economy to
become the largest in Africa?
Did he ever wonder why despite the “signals towards end of 2013 to
2014”, as rightly identified by the Governor to be the beginning of hard
times, the economy remained stable with single digit inflation during
those periods?
Let Gov. Badaru be reminded that it was because of the milestones
recorded in the local production of rice and other staple food that
ensured robust local supply and remarkable progression which limited the
demand for scarce foreign exchange needed for importation. We would be
disappointed if the Governor was oblivious of what was happening around
him in the area of agricultural revolution; especially, as farmers from
his part of the Country openly expressed their support and gains from
these initiatives. Again, when he said that “the past leaders did
nothing to stop a looming recession”, we have no choice but rise to put
the facts right. Less we forget when the Senate approved $52 benchmark
for the Administration’s last Budget at a time Oil was selling for about
$60 and crashing further, the Government did not just sit down and
watch events unfold. Under the leadership of the Finance Ministry, the
Administration developed a scenario-based fiscal template with definite
responses designed to track and tackle varying challenges in the
volatility regime.
We should also remind Badaru that the recent visit of the Facebook
Founder, Mark Zukerberg to the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) in Yaba, Lagos
State, wouldn’t have happened if Jonathan did not have the Vision to set
up the two ICT incubation centers in Lagos and Calabar. The former
President built the Centers in support of youth entrepreneurship, just
as he did with other successful youth-focused programmes like the Youth
Enterprise with Innovation (YOUWIN) and the Nagropreneur Initiative that
turned agriculture into an attractive industry for youths.
Need we remind the Governor that all these were possible because of the
performance contract model Jonathan developed for his ministers where
key performance indicators (KPI) were jointly agreed and signed against
which each minister’s measurable effectiveness was benchmarked?
In view of the above submissions, it is clear that the current economic
recession in the Country was not caused by previous PDP's Administration
or leaders but due to the poor management of Nigeria's economy, lack of
vision and incompetence of the present APC's led Federal Government
that drove Nigerians into this avoidable life threatening quagmire.
Finally, we want to therefore advise the Government of the day to stop
the blame game and look inward towards resolving the recession by
inviting economic experts irrespective of their political leaning to
join hands with the Administration at these trying times.
Signed:
Prince Dayo Adeyeye
PDP National Publicity Secretary
