I know many people do not like reading, but reading some of these things is the only way to help ourselves take informed decisions. Here is an excerpt from the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Okonjo-Iweala: As I continue to emphasize, we in the Economic Management Team have been very clear to the country on the implications of oil price and quantity shocks. We were therefore not taken unawares when oil prices came tumbling down for the second time in six years! Let me read to you an excerpt from a Channels Television interview in 2013, where I argued that an “$80 benchmark price will hurt our economy”. These were my words: “… in our view, current global oil prices are not sustainable. There are two reasons for this: (a) possible reduction in global oil demand… (b) Increased global oil supply as new discoveries in Africa and elsewhere come on stream”. Now several of these critics are coming to ask why there are no savings in the ECA, why we need to tighten our belts now. They criticized saving now they wonder why we didn’t save. They criticized borrowing and now they want us to rush out and borrow. They want us to depend on others for solutions rather than on ourselves. I say Nigeria has outgrown this and, against all odds, we still had $4 billion in the Excess Crude Account as a buffer. It is far from enough since we have already used $1 billion to pay oil marketers but it can help us manage our way for a couple of months, enough for short- to-medium term measures typically used to deal with this kind of situation to kick in. By the way, two papers today, Guardian, Nation & Premium Times, say $1 billion is missing from the ECA. It is a lie. We used it to pay oil marketers and published the same in the papers on December, 2, 2014. So many lies and misinformation are being peddled now to scare people and smear the government. Please beware. Yes, times will be tough but if we work together we will weather the storm. Ladies and Gentlemen, what we need to tell ourselves is that “Panic is not a 7 strategy”. What is necessary is a systematic and focused approach and that is what we propose to Nigeria. We should see these challenging times as times of opportunities to further move this economy on the right path. Luckily, this Administration had taken to diversification seriously and began to make inroads prior to this time. The Non-Oil Sector, whose growth has averaged about 8 percent in the last few years is the primary driver of growth in the economy unlike the Oil Sector which is actually contracting.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:53:58 +0000