Excerpt from Pastor Tunde Bakares State of the Nation Address ....More damning revelations were unveiled in an article titled “Bitter Truths about Economy the Jonathan Govt. Does Not Want Nigerians to Know”, published by Premium Times on December 22, 2014. In it, inconsistencies in statistical indicators being brandished by the government were unveiled. The fact was revealed that in the first five years of civil rule, oil prices were not as high as they were between 2009 and 2013. Yet, whereas in those first five years, we had fiscal surpluses, we have been having fiscal deficits despite the relatively more favourable oil prices between 2009 and 2013. It will also interest Nigerians to know that within the same period when oil prices were high, all other oil producing countries recorded surpluses and deployed those surpluses to long-term infrastructure projects while Nigeria was recording deficits and borrowing to service the deficits. Again, despite the fact that only about 70% of the budget is implemented annually in Nigeria, we keep borrowing and accumulating debt supposedly to service the contrived deficit. Also, whereas growth has supposedly remained strong, we have never been as indebted as we are now since our exit from the Paris Club with a $3.5 billion external debt and a N2.2 trillion naira domestic debt even though what the debt has been used to achieve remains to be seen. Considering the negative correlation between growth and public debt, does this not suggest a statistical window-dressing of our claims of growth? Why do we store our excess earnings in foreign reserves that give us a paltry 3% interest while we accumulate debt at an average interest rate of 13-15%? Even worse is the fact that, according to Chatham House, oil theft averages $3-8 billion annually. Yet, this monumental loss of an industrial scale does not reflect negatively in our growth claims. Definitely, some voodoo economists are cooking our books....
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 19:52:10 +0000
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