Muhammadu Buhari, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria |
What lessons can the fresh
noisemakers on the musical stage learn from the previous noisemakers of the
immediate erstwhile administration? First, the new noisemakers should avoid
serenading us with their ministerial megaphone melodramatic melody. The clowns
or leading lights of the previous administration, especially the handlers of
the economy certainly enjoyed running a circus. They serenaded us with
outlandish claims about the economy and inputs, never mind that under their
watch, the domestic debt quadrupled to 11 trillion naira. But their outputs
clearly showed tangible deliverables in growing the misery, poverty and
unemployment indices for the vast majority of Nigerians.
Second, the new noisemakers
must avoid waxing us with the lyrics of blissful ignorance. With their mastery
of colourful graphic and gimmick presentations, the previous clowns were very
adept at hiding the icebergs that the economic titanic was heading towards.
This much was exposed in January of this year in an article entitled: How not
to manage the economy. Standards & Poor’s ratings, JP Morgan Index, and
international media, which they initially carefully cultivated, later revealed
their folly and economic ignoramus.
Third and more importantly,
the new noisemakers must play their melody with a somber tune. The previous
clowns were not only blissfully ignorant, they were absurdly arrogant. As Tony
Marinho wrote in The Nation, they displayed the disease of “ministerial
arrogance and delusions of grandiosity. They certainly like to go about blowing
their trumpets as the self-acclaimed ‘leading lights of the previous
administration.
Nigeria has several heroes
at home and in the Diaspora in various professional fields in international
public institutions and in the private sector. In particular, there have been
Nigerians who have served as Head of the Commonwealth, Under Secretary General
of the United Nations (UN), Head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Head
of IFAD, Executive Director of UNFPA, and Secretary General of OPEC. There are
others in the private sector, including a Nigerian serving on the board of
Goldman Sachs.
Unlike these silent heroes,
the clowns like to go the extra miles to convince us that they are the greatest
things ever since sliced bread. They want us to believe that the former Director
General (DG) of budget has been appointed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) because of his performance in that
prior role. Hogwash, we all know how far Nigeria’s budget, especially 2015
budget, has been widely off the mark and how fiscal leakages are now being
plugged. This appears to be simply part of the attempts by the former minister
of finance, who nominated the DG to serve as Nigeria’s executive director,
ambassador or representative to the AfDB, to provide a soft landing to cronies
just before a new administration was set to take over.
They also want us to believe
that the current AfDB’s President got the position solely on the strengths of
his expertise, experience and exposure as a minister of agriculture in the
previous administration. The election of the AfDB’s President is a high-powered
political affair reflecting an extension of countries’ foreign policy and
commercial interest and sub-regional rotation.
For instance, there was no
way Nigeria’s candidate who was the head of OPEC in 1995 would have been
allowed to take up the headship of the AfDB under former Head of State, General Sani Abacha. By the same token,
if the March 2015 democratic elections had gone awry or the current Nigerian
President did not come out to support Nigeria’s candidate, the Presidency of
the AfDB would have eluded us!
Fourth, the new orchestra
band noisemakers must avoid the revolving doors of the vaudeville theater hall.
Some have raised concerns about former government officials being connected
with their new employers. Some have been asking what role Lazard and its
subsidiary played during Nigeria’s debt negotiations with the Paris Club. In
the USA, a prominent Senator has being championing the case against revolving
doors by Wall Street bankers into government and vice versa. Specifically, earlier
this year, the appointment of a former Lazard’s banker into a high profile US
Treasury position was blocked as part of efforts to control the use of
revolving doors.
All of which brings us to
issues of moral hazards, which in economics imply people making the decision
about taking risks knowing that others will bear the costs and burden of those
risks. In this context, is it the case that the clowns and merchants of misery
are bailing out after leaving majority of Nigerians with rotten apples of
misery deriving from their economic mismanagement?
Finally, the new
noisemakers must avoid the antics of the clowns and their town criers who think
their clowns are meant to serve only their clans. With these musical musings,
we wish the new noisemakers well in their new roles as ministers of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. (guardian)
No comments:
Post a Comment