Former Finance Minister and
one-time presidential aspirant, Chief Olu Falae has attacked the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led government, describing his performance in office as below
expectations.
Falae said nothing has been
working under the current government, stressing that the claim of Nigeria being
out of recession was a ‘statistical deception.’
Speaking with Sun, the elder
statesman urged Buhari to roll up his sleeves and stop talking about meeting an
empty treasury.
He said, “Be that as it may, he
(Buhari) hasn’t been sterling. I live in Akure, Ondo State. I don’t see what
the Federal Government is doing here. The roads are bad, I don’t see anything
being done about it. I know the economy, they say we are out of recession. That
is statistical deception. If we are out of recession, the man on the street
should feel it. Changes in oil price can account for the higher income they are
talking about.
“Do I know what they are spending
money on? I will look at what I am doing, order my own priorities. My
priorities will be in the area of ensuring that power is available, and
affordable. In one, two, three years, 100 thousand industries will spring back
to life. Tens of millions of people will go back to work.”
He argues that the situation in
Nigeria today is not different from that of the Ibrahim Babangida military
regime which, according to him, equally battled low earnings from oil sales but
left huge signature projects.
He added, “That to me is more
important than anything. After all, when Babangida was in charge, I had the
privilege of serving in that government. The government inherited external debt
of $28 billion from the Shagari government, through to the Buhari government.
“We were the ones who hired Chase
Manhattan Bank to even find out how much we were owing these foreigners,
because nobody knew. We were just being harassed that we were owing money, they
would not open letters of credit for us again. So, we hired Chase, which said
the total that they accepted was $28 billion. The rejected claims were over $10
billion. And the price of oil dropped to $10 per barrel.
“With $38 billion debt overhang,
yet that government still managed to run the economy. Yet a few things were
still done. Egbin Thermal Plant in Lagos, Ugborode Generation Plant, the Third
Mainland Bridge. Despite oil falling to $10 a barrel.”
“And we had $38 billion debt
overhang inherited from the previous administrations. So, when they say there
is no money, it’s a relative term. My father told me, he didn’t have much
education.
“Before there was a small unit in
the Ministry of Economic Development which handled the disbursement of grants
to agriculture-related research institutes, but they built in up into a
ministry and that was when wastes started. River Basin Authorities, all over.
“Where are they today? Moribund.
Extension service could only be done effectively at the local level, ideally by
local governments. It is dead all over the country, but they still give a lot
of money to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. In those days, agriculture
meant fertilizer importation. Huge areas of waste.”
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