Recession: Only an intellectually competent leader can transform Nigeria – Moghalu

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, said on Monday that only an intellectual and competent leader can truly transform Nigeria as the country slid into its second recession in five years.

Moghalu, who was reacting to the confirmation that Nigeria has now entered its worst recession in 33 years, said the report was not surprising, adding that the government’s excuse that the recession was occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic was untenable.

He said on his Twitter handle: “unless the problem of leadership selection and constitution structure is addressed, Nigeria’s economy cannot create wealth for its citizens except for those with political connections.”

Moghalu urged the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to fix the economy so that Nigeria can quickly come out of the recession.

He wrote: “No surprise Nigeria is entering yet another recession. Until Nigeria is led by an intellectually competent leader, with visionary politics backed by sound economic thinking and knowledge, economic transformation will remain a dream. It’s for citizens to do the needful.

“COVID-19 contributed to our current recession, but is no excuse. Nigeria’s economy has been weak for several years. Was the 2016 recession caused by COVID-19 too? The deeper problems of economic management led to our weak response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“South Africa’s budgetary fiscal stimulus response to the crisis was $26 billion. Ours was a budgetary provision of N500 billion ($1.3 billion) and a @cenbank intervention of N1 trillion ($3 billion). And only a fraction of our desperately poor households received the 20K disbursements from the money budgeted.

“Unless we address the problem of our constitutional structure and the leadership selection problem in our politics, Nigeria’s economy simply can’t create prosperity for its citizens, only for a very few with the right political connections for rent-seeking.

“The few real entrepreneurs who make it do so in spite of, not because of the government.”