By Chukwuma Umeorah
African Financial and Development Economist, Mustapha Akinkumi, has blamed the ruling All Progressive’s Congress (APC) lack of clarity as the major cause for Nigeria’s poor economic state.
Akinwunmi made this assertion while speaking on the worrisome state of the economy on Channels TV’s breakfast show, Sunrise as he specifically pointed out that the harm being caused by the implementation of the currency redesign and why the APC led administration is to blame for the pitiful state of the economy.
He further stated that, “Without prejudice, Nigeria has changed significantly since 2015 and that is a result of a lack of clarity, which is what we see now with the ruling party. On average, we are using 23 percent of our revenue to service our debt from 2011 to 2014. That number moved up to 52 percent of our revenue from 2015 to 2018. Today, that number is about 80 percent of our revenue.”
Referencing the administration of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, he explained how the former president traveled around the world in the early years of his administration to improve Nigeria’s image. He went on to say that while Obasanjo was working on the country’s image, his then vice president, Atiku Abubakar focused on the nation’s economy, leading to double-digit growth.
Akinwunmi noted this growth led to many Nigerians returning back home because of the belief that Nigeria would continue to move forward.
When asked about the connection between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) printing money above the five percent granted it by the Central Bank Act under section 38 and inflation, Akinkunmi explained that
“There is no cooperation between the fiscal side and the monetary side. We are in a mess. It’s illegal for the CBN to do that but we all kept quiet, nobody is talking about that. All the ruling party governors did not talk about that. They didn’t talk about the inflation.”
He advised that Nigeria needs the leadership quality of the People Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar who depicts a consistent leadership style for Nigeria to begin to achieve desired economic breakthroughs, “We need clarity, coherence, and consistency. When you are not coherent and consistent, capital doesn’t come because nobody will believe you.”