Adams Oshiomhole
Former Edo state governor Adams Oshiomhole and
ex-Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor have publicly disagreed over
how the Nigerian economy is being managed.
The
Punch reports that the ‘fight’ occurred at Vanguard’s Economic Discourse
in Lagos on Friday, March 10 after Prof. Charles Soludo delivered a
keynote address titled ‘The hard facts to rescue the Nigerian economy’,
highlighting some of the failures of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
government, particularly in terms of fiscal and monetary policies.
But during the panel session, the minister of
solid minerals development Dr. Kayode Fayemi defended the government and
Oshiomhole accused Soludo of wrongly allocating millions of dollars to
two new generation banks shortly before the naira was devalued.
He said: “I
got some intelligence from my comrades who worked in the system and we
found out that the CBN under Soludo had just allocated couple of
millions of dollars to two, as they were then known, new generation
banks.
“And I asked Prof (Soludo), if you were going
to devalue by Friday, why did you auction dollar at a lower rate on
Thursday? I accused Soludo, I said you have enriched these two young men
to the tune of N8bn, courtesy of your internal abuse.
“When the regulator behaved in this
manner, then the Nigerian condition is much more serious than we can
appreciate it. We need to deal with issues of attitude.”
Soludo fired back to the amazement of the
audience, saying some people tend to change the subject when they did
not have an answer.
“This debate has only
begun. Adams made the point about exchange rate and exchange allocation
to two banks. I want to say for the record that Adams Oshiomhole has
lied. I didn’t say he misquoted anything; he has lied,” Soludo said.
He added: “Every
bid produced a different exchange rate and there were different winners
at every bid. We didn’t do devaluation as the case may be; we had the
currency depreciating as the market determined day to day. With all due
respect, I think if you (Oshiomole) don’t know what to say, sir, just
don’t get into this kind of personal allegation.
“Whose plan is it? Ownership will
determine whether the plan is just a public relations document or
whether it will be implemented. To what extent is the plan consistent
with the APC manifesto, which promised a conscious plan for post-oil
economy and to restructure the country and devolve power to units with
the best practices of federalism? Is this plan that plan?”
He continued: “The plan envisages to continue
the practice of the past government of borrowing to finance recurrent
expenditure. Up until 2018, recurrent expenditure will continue to
exceed total revenue. The deficit will continue to exceed capital
budget, meaning that capital expenditure will continue to be borrowed,
as done by the last government. So, what has changed?” he queried.
“The
plan as packaged is a good effort, but in terms of our expectations as a
plan for transition to a post-oil economy as promised by the APC, it is
a missed opportunity.
“I am willing to
bet that not much will happen in terms of the structure of the economy
or the structure of fiscal and export revenue at the end of the plan.”
Soludo
has been a top critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration's economic policies which he says are too simple to save
the country from the present recession it is in.
 governor have publicly disagreed o...){kind=link}
Post a Comment