Vice President Osinbajo and economic patriotism

As the Head of Nigeria’s Eco­nomic Team, I sympathise with the Vice President YemiOsinbajo because he is lead­ing a team that inherited a broke economic system. An economic system that is seeing greater deep­ening economic stress and crises.

I want to encourage the Vice president by reminding him that the hallmark of great leadership is by staying engaged with the peo­ple; if you don’t communicate with the people, you empower them to think negatively. People need to be talked to while coming up with policies that will benefit them as quickly as possible.

In the land of my fathers, there is a popular saying that if you ap­pear last and you still make the same mistakes of your predeces­sors, then you are worse off than your predecessors. This sadly ex­plains the current situation in the country or how do you ex­plain the high level of hopeless­ness pervading the country since the emergence of this government. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) came out on Monday 18th July, 2016 to tell Nigerians that in­flation has risen to an 11-year high of 16.5%. The Consumer Price In­dex (CPI) which measures infla­tion, rose by 0.9% in the month of June compared to 15.6% the previ­ous month. This according to NBS was the fifth consecutive month that the headline index will rise.

There is an unemployment rate of 2.1%, exports has dropped to 34.6% and imports declined by 7.8% all in this year’s 1st quarter.

So many factors can be attrib­uted to this increase amongst which are continued appetite for imported items and related prod­ucts, energy prices and lack of clear government economic policy di­rection. It is no more news that the feeling of despondency in the country is pretty high and the peo­ple are no longer smiling; they have since run out of patience.

Mr Vice President, our prob­lem is that we are a poor nation that refuses to accept the fact. We are rich in resources but lazy in ide­as that are productive. The econo­my was already in bad shape be­fore the emergence of this current administration but then govern­ance and government is continu­um. This current government in­herited both assets and liabilities; with this, one can halt the rot and chart a path to move forward.

Change is always a journey and never a destination; fiscal federal­ism is one such construct. Equi­ty is a signpost. Clear articulated economic diversification is a sign­post. The best chefs in the world start from ingredient selection, they understand that everything must align to get the right dish. The Vice President is a God fear­ing man and a man of integrity, but then integrity alone does not deliver results. Results are deliv­ered through a team and through the right process. We really do not need economic superstars. What we need right now are those that can and would be allowed to de­liver to us all.

The Finance Minister appear­ing before the Senate the other day said the economy is “tech­nically in recession” whatever that means. That is not true. The economy is inRECESSION. Our country is bleeding; things are tough right now, probably the toughest in 16yeas. The middle class is eroding fast, we are not creating jobs, the private sector is contracting, salaries being owed for months and people are losing jobs. If you have a job you should be thankful.

In an era like this, you put your best foot forward; you can play politics with some positions but some you should never. The Ni­gerian economy needs a quick re­covery and resetting or else we go the way of Greece and Venezuela.

Mr Vice President, there are sufficient materials to lead our economy back to the path of re­covery but some of them have been sacrificed on the altar of pol­itics, ethnic slant and trust, nepo­tism and zero sum game of win­ners take all.

Please, you need help, kindly look outside of your environment and source for economic experts that will help the economy to the path of recovery.