Your Military Policies Cannot Work, Ex-minister Tells Buhari

Former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili has described as “archaic”, President Muhammdu Buhari’s economic policies for the country. She affirmed that it was impossible for the policies used during the military regime to work in a democratic setting. She stated that the effect of the policies have been detrimental to the masses. “What did not work in 1984 cannot possibly be a solution in a global economy that’s much more integrated”, she said at The Platform, a yearly programme organised by Covenant Christian Center on Saturday Ezekwesili further said stressed that, “During the first coming of this our new president, a command and control economic system was adopted, and inflation spiralled, jobs were lost and the economic growth level dipped. “In over one year, the president is still holding to the premise that command and control is the only way out, and we have lost the single digits inflation status we maintained in past administrations. “The weakest and the most vulnerable suffer the impact of inflation the most. Enormous power is being abused as a result of archaic and opaque economic policies.” Ezekwesili emphasized that the primary purpose of government is to provide security of lives and properties, as well as improve the welfare of the people. She also criticized the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying the apex bank needs to “regain its autonomy”. “We need to rethink the present monetary policy of the administration, actually the monetary policy was relatively safe guarded from political domination, it will do well to give a semblance of autonomy back to the Central Bank, so that the central bank would speak the language of economics and not this language of rhetoric and language of anecdote, and language of suppositions that are no longer premised on hard economic facts,” she said. “It is important that the central bank will retrace its steps and get back in right monetary policy making. Its crucial. If we lost that, it’s going to be tough to regain.”

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