Tinubu: Nigeria operates voodoo economy

EROMOSELE EBHOMELE

Former governor of Nigeria’s Lagos state and national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has described the current claim that the country’s economy is growing as fiction saying the country operates a voodoo economy.

Tinubu said this in Lagos on Thursday at the launch of Financialism: Water From An Empty Well, a book he co-authored with Brian Browne, former American Consul-General in Nigeria.

The national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) said the book was a honest warning to the country against its economic practices.

He questioned a situation where the federal government would claim that the economy was growing, yet the same government is not able to understand the financial and economic principles.

Asking what sense there is in such economic practice, he declared: “this is voodoo economy.”

He reiterated his belief in the principle that it was better to spend the money and save the people than save the money and waste the people.

“We must reform the financial sector to become the artery that sends funds to the real sector.

“We must restructure our education system to meet the challenges of the country rather than educate the people for another land

“We must establish commodity exchange board exclusively for farmers,” he said adding that this was the practice all over the world as it would encourage people to farm and boost other areas of the country’s economy.

He said the country could afford to provide a meal a day to pupils and students with a corresponding increase in production and distribution in the country.

“We can create our own economy. Let’s think for this nation. We can grow the economy within the next 24 months, not this fake growth and statistics,” he admonished stressing that though foreign development is welcome, “but will not lead us to prosperity. It could fix a room or two but cannot build us the mansion that we dream of.”

He noted that the loans given to the Nigerian government are drawn from the same foreign reserves kept in foreign land by the country.

“The foreigners bring to the governors their foreign reserves. At a time, I asked the World Bank to leave me alone, I would do it myself.

“We have the ability and knowledge to forge ahead in our own way. We must examine how things worked out in other places. Africa is blessed, all we need to do is choose our part, take leadership for what it is,” he declared stressing that through this, the country could safeguard its internal security and improve its productive workforce.

He warned that a poor and idle population is a danger to the country.

He said he co-authored the book for the interest of the country.

Mr. Browne, in his statement, said if posterity is to remember the event, it would not be for the launching of the book but for a fresh ideal.

“Your life is being defined by those who think you have no future,” he told the gathering adding that “I have fulfilled a promise made. Through me, my forefathers have returned to their land.

“I see a bruised set of people rising up to take charge of their destinies.”

He said many Nigerians laugh in public but within their houses, they are sad people who daily worry about the little things of life that should have been provided by the government.

He added that as a result of the challenges of the country, children are often now seen hawking on the streets while parents cry at night because they do not have the hope of food for their children.

He appealed to Nigerians not to allow the country blow away with the winds.

Nuhu Ribadu, presidential aspirant of the ACN in the last election, used the event to thank Mr. Browne for saving the country several times as Consul-General.

He also called Tinubu a genuine human being who would always want to bring out the best in others.

“Whether you accept it or not, he is to be credited with what Lagos is today,” Ribadu said.

The event was attended by the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, billionaire businessmen, Aliko Dangote and Jim Ovia, governors politicians and other prominent Nigerians.