Prince Adewole Adebayo, a former Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate, has characterized President Bola Tinubu’s economic team as lacking in coordination and suffering from economic illiteracy.
He criticized the Finance Minister for claiming that the economy was performing well despite significant external borrowing.
According to report, Adebayo claimed that economic illiteracy is a problem in the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
He remarked, “I always hope that Nigeria will have a nice day, but it is not a good day when the finance minister thinks that the day he borrows in London is a good day.
When Nigeria travels abroad to make capital market investments with our excess production, how can it be a good day? No minister we’ve had in the past would claim that the day we borrowed money was a good one.
He said this in response to the statement that even developed nations like America borrow:
“America borrows from its own people.” You use your own money to borrow. I’m not fighting with them over using the money they printed. When taking out a Eurobond loan, borrowing money from other people in other capitals of the world,it’s a sign of crisis.
They must manage the economy so that we are able to produce our own capital. I believe that they lack coordination at their core. Although he is meant to be the economic coordinator, he lacks coordination.
“The country should be able to create wealth if they work well together and collaborate with us as a population, but the thinking isn’t coordinated.”
The Tinubu administration is experiencing economic illiteracy.
“The parameters are a little rudimentary and fundamental. They are not sincere about them, even when it comes to those most core parameters. Adebayo stated: “The exchange rate they fixed is unrealistic, so they don’t want to meet them because they are not realistic.”
The lack of coordination is what worries me, considering the previous actions they have made. My hope is that Tinubu’s budget for 2025 succeeds.
“I wish for them success. I’d like to attract investment to Nigeria. Anyone should have faith in Nigeria’s economy, I beg you. I’m in the opposition, but that’s what I want. Though these contradictions would ultimately prove themselves, they are self-contradictory.
For instance, they envision themselves achieving 15% inflation if they are successful, yet any fundamental microeconomist understands that double-digit inflation is never acceptable
“I heard and saw the minister, and I understood his philosophy,” he wrote. In person, I’m not against him. I admire him as a merchant banker—someone who works in finance and can handle your assets.
When it comes to our scale of development, you have two things to do. The first is the housekeeping of finances and budgets. In the budget’s first section, the government sets aside money for itself.
Subsequently, the second section of the budget sends a signal to the rest of the economy, generates a stimulus for regions they wish to highlight, and then employs additional incentives to promote investment by others. They are giving off the wrong vibes.
First, the manner they are approaching their own housekeeping is incorrect. You can never tell someone that your inflation rate cannot be lower than your unemployment rate, especially if they are familiar with basic microeconomics. You’re capable.
“You’ve already turned it on its head. Because of the way you manage the economy, your unemployment rate cannot fall below 15% if your inflation rate is 15%.
If you listen to the man again, he meticulously praised the notion that they are attempting to provide meager financial assistance to 25 million homes.
Why don’t you hire people from the 25 million households that exist? You don’t have a list of jobless persons to whom you can offer employment, but you do have a social register for those to whom you wish to donate money. Does it make any sense?
“The notion that you will envision manufacturing by believing that if you give N50,000 to any business, no matter how big or little, it will go unnoticed; N50,000? The individual will spend roughly that on transportation if he comes to your office to pick up the money.
For instance, you won’t be aware of other paper expenses like labor, infrastructure, and other charges if you have loan money. You cannot create jobs or capital in the economy if you are pushing those expenses over sustainability.
The INEC chairman asserted that Ghana might learn from Nigeria.
Indeed, they learned a lot about how to avoid being like Nigeria. Since the INEC chairman is a professor, he must be speaking with some authority because what Ghana did is completely at odds with what we did. That is what it may logically mean.
They made an effort to establish their credibility. Even though we made greater investments in technology and human capital, we attempted to undermine the credibility of ours.
“You don’t travel to other nations and find vice chancellors, deans of faculties, and professors emeritus coming to be returning officers,” Adebayo continued.
Encourage the idea of rotating the presidency
“Rotation is at two levels,” the former presidential contender said. For the elite to live in peace, you have to rotate based on the geopolitical zone. For development and justice to occur in Nigeria, however, you have to move from the elite to the people.
“Poverty, insecurity, and other issues will be revolving if you are going from North to South and all of that while circling the same wasteful elite who don’t know any better.
“However, there would be some progress for the country if you rotated from the old to the young and from those who adhere to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to those who have indigenous, genuine, and pro-Nigeria ideas.”
