For the umpteenth time, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, took a swipe at the Muhammadu Buhari administration over its management of the economy.

He said the present government inherited a wobbling economy but “it is also depleting the foreign reserve it met”.

According to him, Nigeria is in dire need of help to wriggle out of its economic turmoil.

Soludo spoke at the Vanguard Economic Discourse tagged, “The hard facts to rescue the Nigerian Economy” held in Lagos.

The ex-CBN helmsman who was the keynote speaker at the event attended by key players in the nation’s economic sector said Nigerians continue to bear the brunt of the country’s economic instability.

He said: “The unique thing about the topic of the event is that Nigeria is in dire need of help. But I wished that the topic is centred around the new economic plan. There is no doubt that the present government inherited a depleting economy but it is also depleting the foreign reserve it met.

“If it had even grown it by 50 percent, it would have been a different story by now. Workers have suffered the most in the present government being owed arrears which reduces their nominal life, more so as inflation has hit the roof.”

Soludo stressed that Nigeria must strive to remove the uncertainty in the exchange rate regime, pointing out that any serious post-oil economy would entrench a decisive exchange rate regime.

“There is no doubt that government means well, as the saying goes, the road to hell is always filled with good intentions. We have wasted too much time to reinvent the wheel and Nigerians are paying for it. What Nigeria needs now is statesmanship politics,” he added.

Speaking along the same line, a former deputy governor of the apex bank, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, tagged the government’s economic blueprint a fire brigade to get the country out of recession.

He suggested that the solution lies in industrialisation, saying, “I dare say that we must industrialise or perish”.

Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi insisted the government needs oil money to diversify, saying it cannot perform magic.

“Diversification is not tantamount to ignoring oil and gas. It also means making good use of the revenues of the oil and gas. There is no doubt that the government is underperforming but we can also see that our tax system is one of the very lowest”, he said.

•Adapted from a Daily Trust report.

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