We’re Inheriting Nigeria’s Worst Economy In History – Osinbajo

We’re Inheriting Nigeria’s Worst Economy

In History – Osinbajo

The Vice President-elect, Prof. Yomi

Osinbajo, on Wednesday said Nigeria’s

economy is in its worst shape in history.

He put the nation’s local and international

debt profile at US$60billion with a 2015

debt serving bill of N953.6billion,

representing 21 per cent of the 2015

budget.

Osinbajo gave these statistics in his

remarks at the opening of a 2-day Policy

Dialogue on the Implementation of the

Agenda for Change, which began in Abuja

on Wednesday.

He noted that an estimated 110 million, out

of the nation’s over 170 million population,

live in extreme poverty while the largest

chunk of the benefits of our national

wealth accrues to a small percentage of the

population.

According to him, the nation’s dwindling oil

revenues has made it difficult for two

thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states to pay salaries.

He said, “We are concerned that our

economy is currently in, perhaps, its worst

moment in history. Local and international

debts stand at US$ 60 billion.

“Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6

billion, 21 per cent of our budget. On

account of severely dwindled resources,

over two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe

salaries.

“Federal institutions are not in much better

shape. Today, the nation borrows to fund

recurrent expenditure.”

This, he explained, is against the backdrop

of a highly unequal society in which, by

some reckoning, the largest percentage of

the benefits of our national wealth accrues

to a small group within our population.

Osinbajo said the manifesto of the All

Progressives Congress offers a vision of

shared prosperity and soci0-economic

inclusion for all Nigerians that leaves no

one behind in the pursuit of a prosperous

and fulfilling life.

According to him, the goal of the policy

dialogue is to interrogate the positions and

propositions before a wider audience and

to lunch a robust public conversation on

policy directions and priorities that will

help inform the incoming administration’s

approach in the next four years.

He further explained that the forum

exemplifies the sort of consultative and

consensual approach to policy-making that

the APC and the new administration intend

to model in office.

The Vice President elect also declared that

sessions during the dialogue would explore

a wide range of policy priorities including

the diversification of the economy in the

wake of dwindling oil revenues.

In order to achieve this, he said, the

administration intends to engender job-led

growth through the revitalisation of

agriculture in pursuit of job creation and

food security, improving the regulatory

frameworks in the most strategic sphere of

economic activity.

Earlier, a former Secretary of State for

Trade and Industry, Mr. Peter Mandelson,

who represented former British Prime

Minister, Tony Blair, advised the incoming

administration, to take advantage of its

current level of public support to take hard

decisions.

He explained that with the current state of

affairs, the task ahead of the incoming

administration was indeed a daunting one.

Drawing from the experiences of the

Labour Party in Britain, Mr. Peter

Mandelson said, the first rule of

governance is “Be true to your word; be

true to your mandate.”

He urged the Buhari-led administration not

to be afraid to take hard decisions but that

it must remain mindful of the timing of

such decisions.

Mandelson also advised the administration

not to attempt to do everything at once but

ensure that things are done with proper

planning along with a commitment to

delivery.

Punch.