Nigeria’s Wobbling Economy

At the Saint Regis Hotel in Washington, DC, United States, the lingering problems of Nigeria’s economy echoed when some of Nigeria’s heavyweight economists and investors such as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala dissected the country’s economy.

Dangote, the richest African, according to Forbes Magazine, identified three problems Nigeria’s economy is facing. He said the country needed good infrastructure, credit growth and sufficient power supply.

His observation about the economy is only a reflection of what several Nigerians have said in the past including Okonjo–Iweala, who speaks with both sides of her mouth.

The Minister of Finance once claimed that the Federal Government was broke with only $3.6 billion left in the excess crude account. But she has since gone back on her words. This has led many people to lose faith in the ability of the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to fix the wobbling economy.

Recently, the faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, led by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, cautioned the Finance Minister over poor handling of the nation’s economy. The group asked Okonjo-Iweala to either improve her management of the nation’s economy according to the provisions of the Appropriation Act 2013 or resign her position.

Senator Abdulmumuni Muhammad Hassan also believes she has run short of ideas and if that is the case, she should resign and allow another person to come in and inject fresh blood and ideas into the economy.

According to the African Economic Outlook, AEO, there is an urgent need to diversify the Nigerian economy into the non-oil sector as this would help expand the sources of growth and make it broad-based, both socially and geographically.  The organisation believes further development of agriculture, manufacturing and services could broaden growth, create employment and reduce poverty. If the right policies are developed there is hope for higher growth, lower inflation, and reserve accumulation.

The World Bank in its new Nigeria Economic Report, NER, said Nigeria’s economic growth has not automatically translated into better economic and social welfare for Nigerians. The report explains that poverty reduction and job creation have not kept pace with population growth, implying social distress for an increasing number of Nigerians.

Okonjo-Iweala keeps painting a rosy picture of the economy while there are glaring indices that things are really gloomy. There is urgent need to diversify the economy from its current over dependence on crude oil. If the government could fully harness the agricultural potentials  of this country, the issue of poverty and the unemployment quagmire will be banished completely. But the lack of political will to embrace the much needed agricultural revolution will continue to weigh negatively against this administration.