A former governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), Prof Charles Soludo, has
advised the presidential flag bearer of the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
President Goodluck Jonathan, to stop
campaigning about the record of the
outgoing government, saying it has no
testimonial to parade.
Soludo, a former governorship candidate
of the party in Anambra State, gave this
position in a document entitled ‘Buhari vs
Jonathan: Beyond election’, and made
available to LEADERSHIP newspaper.
The document, which emphasized the
technocrat-cum-politician’s passion for
the country and concern about the
forthcoming general election, stressed the
need for the country to improve on its
economy especially considering the
dwindling price of crude oil in the
international market, among other
economic challenges.
He said, “My advice to President
Jonathan and his handlers is to stop
wasting their time trying to campaign on
his job record. Those who have decided
to vote for him will not do so because he
has taken Nigeria to the moon. His record
on the economy is a clear ‘F’ grade.
“As one reviews the laundry list of micro
interventions the government calls its
achievements, one wonders whether such
list is all that the government could
deliver with an unprecedented oil boom
and an unprecedented public debt
accumulation. I can clearly see why
reasonable people are worried.
“Everywhere else in the world, government
performance on the economy is measured
by some outcome variables such as:
income (GDP growth rate), stability of
prices (inflation and exchange rate),
unemployment rate, poverty rate, etc.
“On all these scores, this government has
performed worse than its immediate
predecessor– Obasanjo regime. If we
appropriately adjust for oil income and
debt, then this government is the worst in
our history on the economy. All statistics
are from the National Bureau of
Statistics”.
While comparing Jonathan’s
administration to that of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo where he (Soludo)
served, he noted that “despite presiding
over the biggest oil boom in our history, it
(present administration) has not added
one percentage point to the growth rate
of GDP compared to the Obasanjo regime
especially the 2003- 07 period. Obasanjo
met GDP growth rate at 2% but averaged
7% within 2003- 07.
“ The current government has been stuck
at 6% despite an unprecedented oil boom.
Income (GDP) growth has actually
performed worse, and poverty escalated.
This is the only government in our history
where rapidly increasing government
expenditure was associated with
increasing poverty”.
While assessing the economic and
development policies of the two major
political parties in the February election,
the ruling PDP and the All Progressives
Congress (APC), he declared that “So far,
neither the APC nor the PDP has a
credible programme for employment and
poverty reduction”.
“The APC promises to create 20,000 jobs
per state in the first year, totalling a mere
720,000 jobs. This sounds like a quota
system and for a country where the new
entrants into the labour market per
annum exceed two million. If it was
intended as a joke, APC must please get
serious.
“On the other hand, President Jonathan
targets two million jobs per annum but
his strategy for doing so is a Job Board—
another committee of sort. Sorry, Mr.
President, a Job Board is not a strategy.
The principal job Nigerians hired you to
do for them is to create jobs for them
too. You cannot outsource that job, Sir.
Creating 3 million jobs per annum under
the unfolding crisis would task our
creativity and audacity to the limits”.
