The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday took the former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Chukwuma Soludo, to the cleaners over his criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan’s management of the country’s economy, saying his comments amounted to committing “intellectual hara-kiri”.
The Minister, who spoke through her Special Adviser on Media, Paul Nwabuikwu, accused Mr. Soludo of single-handedly mismanaging the country’s banking sector between May 2004 and May 2009 and plunging the country into “an incredible accumulation of liabilities that will cost tax payers about N5.67 trillion”.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, apparently livid, described the former CBN governor as “an embittered loser in the Nigerian political space” who is “so derailed” to “commit intellectual harakiri by deliberately misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job”.
“Soludo has shamelessly pandered to so many past leaders that Nigerians are asking one more time – what position is Soludo gunning for now?” she asked
Rebasing has also enabled the Administration to create the platform from which to drive our work on increasing non-oil revenues. These are areas of critical policy value.
Soludo mentioned the issue of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU, noting that this Administration has not been vocal or clear on its direction with this agreement. On the contrary, the Administration, particularly the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, has been clear on this issue but since Soludo has been in the air he probably has not been aware of this. Just recently, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment reiterated again to the corporate sector that Nigeria has not signed and does not propose to sign the EPA in its present form.
The point is that this government has been pursuing the right economic policies, and its efforts have been acknowledged nationally and internationally. Let me say that there are objective ways to measure performance. There are international institutions globally accepted to do this. They have acknowledged this Administration’s good economic management up to the recent crisis and even now.
We cannot go by someone’s subjective view, driven by bitterness and bile. We need to look to the truth and to professionalism. This is where Professor Soludo totally fails. For the other gratuitous, political, and personal attacks, we are sure that those mentioned will respond appropriately. It is a sad day for Nigeria and the economics profession that someone like Soludo, a former CBN governor should write such an article. If Soludo wants to regain respect, he should return to the path of professionalism. He certainly needs something to improve his image from that of someone whose sojourn into National Economic Management ended in disaster for the banking sector, his sojourn in politics, ended in overwhelming rejection by the electorate, and more recently, his sojourn abroad, has put him out of touch with the reality of the Nigerian economy.
Paul C Nwabuikwu
Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance
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