Buhari Tackling Recession With ‘Wrong Tools’
President Muhammadu Buhari[/caption]
The Director of Policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Moses Tule, has questioned the Federal Government’s approach to tackling the on-going economic recession, accusing the government of using “carpenters” who bring “carpentry tools” to deal with the menace.
Tule made this disclosure at a roundtable meeting with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, organised on the current economic recession in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday.
The CBN director said Buhari’s economic team comprises of individuals from different fields, which according him have little or no knowledge on the Nigerian economy.
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He said: “Some came in as doctors into the macro-economic management and are giving the tools of medical doctors to advise on how to solve the problem of recession. Some came in as carpenters and they are using carpentry tools to advise on the problems of economic recession; some came in as engineers and they are using their tools to advise on how to address economic recession.
“They have not allowed the professionals to do their jobs. They have not allowed the professional to provide the direction.”
He stressed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had consistently warned the Federal Government that the country will fall into recession if adequate steps are not taken, but however the warning fell on deaf ears.
On why Nigeria got into recession, Tule said: “Oil prices are down. Not only are oil prices down, the Niger Delta Avengers have blown up oil producing facilities and export facilities, severally.
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“When they blew the Forcados, it took government six months to fix Forcados. That was a loading bay. And after fixing it, they went back and blew it again. So we have oil prices and production going down. The implication is that foreign exchange earnings are going down, but unfortunately, our import expenditure is not going down. It is still in the region of N976 billion, monthly.”
He blamed Nigerians who preferred imported goods, rather than domestically produced products as those responsible for the foundation of recession in the country.
“If we want to regain our place, how did we get here? We must address that question,” he said.
“The moment we began to prefer imported goods to our domestically produced goods, we laid the foundation and built the superstructure to where we are now. This is a conscious choice. Every country makes the choice where it wants to be. This is what we chose for ourselves as a country.”
