| Okonjo-Iweala |
Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has blamed the country’s
present economic situation on the zero political will of the immediate past
government to save for the rainy day. Speaking yesterday at the George
Washington University, Washington D.C., Okonjo-Iweala said the Goodluck
Jonathan administration differed seriously from the Olusegun Obasanjo
administration under whose administration the Nigeria government saved $22
billion, which she said, helped to cushion the dryness that came the way of the
country at the end of the last decade.
“We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a five per cent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy, and we never had to come to the Bank or the Fund. This time around, and this is the key now, you need not only to have the instrument, but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will. So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries.’’
“We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a five per cent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy, and we never had to come to the Bank or the Fund. This time around, and this is the key now, you need not only to have the instrument, but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will. So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries.’’