Much
as I appreciate what the media has done by publicizing the speech
delivered by Dr Oby Ezekwesili at the Inaugural Business Lecture of the
Lagos Country Club, I am still not quite certain about what that speech
hoped to achieve.
You
see, Dr Ezekwesili did a fine job of detailing the current issues in
the country. She even took it a step further by saying the problem did
not begin with President Buhari’s government, but had been brewing when
Goodluck Jonathan was in office. The former minister explained how bad
policies had led to this downward spiral we now call ‘recession’.
Donning
her advocacy cap, she called on the citizenry to ‘convict’ the
government to retrace its steps and to sit up. At that point, I knew
that this speech was a dud. I must hand it to her though, that she is a
great communicator. Anyone who is able to analyse their audience and
feed them what they want to hear is great, really. I mean, delivered in
Lagos Country Club, I’m sure she would have received a rousing ovation.
But,
take that same speech to the market place, to the homes of those who
have lost their jobs, to the pockets of those who have yet to receive
their salaries and they would ask, “how does this speech affect the cost of a bag of rice?” When Jonathan was president, how much was a bag of rice?
Not too long ago, there was an odd sort of ‘campaign’ that took social media by storm in Nigeria. It was a #BringBackOurCorruption
campaign. As painful as it was and still is to read those words, they
were emblematic of the mindset of most people at the time. So, you say
the problems started with Jonathan? The average individual would tell
you that at least they were able to feed, take care of their families
and maintain a reasonable lifestyle. This wasn’t so much an advocacy for
corruption, it was more of a pun. If you say Jonathan was bad and
corrupt but things were reasonably better for the average individual,
then bring back the so-called corruption. It was that simple. When you
think of it, nothing makes more sense to a hungry man. But when he is
fed, when he has something to go home to at the end of the day, and a
reason to rise early and the start of the next day, then you can have
some support for your crusade.
On
the matter of her allegations that the economy was mismanaged or
defunct, need we be reminded that when Jonathan was president people got
paid, they could eat, the economy grew at 4 percent, and inflation was
at 9 percent? Beyond that, the Nigerian youth graduated with high hopes
for jobs as a result of the GIS Scheme and the support of private
companies that were springing up everywhere. Those who had decided to be
entrepreneurs also got the support of the same government through the
YouWIN Initiative.
Even as oil prices
fell and then Finance Minister, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, recommended
belt-tightening measures, it was clear that the government was not
prepared to have the poor suffer more at the expense of the rich. If
that indeed was mismanagement, then we may very well declare that this
present government has sent our economy on a suicide mission from which
there is very little hope of return.
Looking at the
figures Dr Ezekwesili presented at her speech, it is certainly true that
the growth percentage dropped, but with active management the economic
team managed to keep the economy on positive growth path. What do we
have now? An abdication of economic management. The government clearly
has decided to ‘wing it’.
Even former
president Obasanjo, under whom Ezekwesili herself served, advised them
to focus their energies on more productive concerns and stop the blame
game. Nigerians are not deceived. The actions of the current
Administration clearly show their ineptitude and absolute lack of
intellectual content.
The former Minister
of Education also noted that both governments; the present and
immediate past, failed to adopt the right policies to deal with the
crash in crude oil prices, which began in mid-2014. How is she any
different from the current government she is so eager to accuse?
When you relish
pin-pointing problems without proffering any cogent or actionable
solution, you are ineffectually saying that you don’t know the answers.
And if you don’t know the answers, could you try and give us a breather?
We have been on this ‘whodunnit’ merry-go-round for far too long. When
are we going to stop saying who did what, or who should have done what
and actually get something done?
If Mrs Ezekwesili
has answers, she may as well start spitting them out. And by answers, I
mean something more than a clamour to begin another advocacy group. The way I see it, we will need more than a #BringBackOurEconomy hashtag to get back what we have lost.
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