IQ4News: What are the possible solutions to achieving the improvement of Nigeria’s economy?

Dr. Nweze: According to a report by Woodmark, an Irish based consulting firm that studies the oil industry, the oil and gas situation in Africa, has shown that Nigeria has not made any forward investment in that sector. So in five years, Nigeria has not invested, neither have their counterparts in the joint venture arrangement. What is going on is that there is no new exploration has been done in the past five years; they have just been taking from reserve. To stay afloat in the oil industry, you need new explorations. For instance, government produces about 2.5 million barrels; they need to explore new fields to produce 3.5m barrels to remain afloat, but in the past five years no new exploration has been done. You find that there have not been serious investments and we are in a crisis. This will also affect our oil reserve in the long run; it is like having bucket of water, where you go and fetch continuously from, thinking that the bucket of water will not finish. Nigeria has to double exploration to stay afloat.

The Removal of subsidy is just an aspect. The moneys made by the government, instead of being invested, are being spent. It is like not servicing a car, one day the engine of the vehicle will knock.  The oil price in the international market will definitely fall once Libya stabilizes and Libya will stabilize. When this happens, we will find out that government will not have money to finance next year’s budget.  That is why they want to remove the subsidy so that they will make money locally to use the money to cushion government’s shortfall. If you check the next year’s budget, you’ll find that it is fiscal regime, a regime of less expenditure.

 The economy cannot grow with that pattern of less expenditure; it will mean that people will be in suffering mood for a longer time. What the government is supposed to be doing is to invest more in the economy and not shrinking the spending. Yes, if you are shrinking the recurrent expenditure but not the capital, it’s all like a jamboree. 

IQ4News: Are you then against the finance minister’s Economic Policy of shrinking spendings?

Dr. Nweze: My challenge with Okonji Iweala is that she comes in with the World Bank/ IMF mentality which is shrinking is spending less. Greece is in turmoil because of this mode of operation. The problem is that we do not understand the World Bank’s policy. If Nigeria were a developed economy, Iweala’s policies will work, but the way things are she is just implementing World Bank’s ideas and not looking at what is available within and then adjusting it accordingly. She takes the World Bank’s policies hook, line and sinker. This will not help the economy and she is bound to fail, she has to look inward.

IQ4News: Are you of the school of thought that the Finance minister might be furthering World Bank/IMF’s agenda?

Yes,  About a month ago, I was at a conference with some World Bank officials. One of them told me that he cannot for her to resume duties, so that they can get their programmes running because Nigeria has too much that there is too much bureaucracy. These international financial institutions just want the developing economies to be dependent on them. The moment you try to liberate yourself economically, they find another way to hold onto you. For instance, they can offer money to finance the power sector, anything to hold on to you, they don’t want to let go.

Even when you don’t need money, they will push it to you. The economy is forever dependent on World Bank.  The World Bank, IMF and the WTO are actually like leaches, they keep sucking whatever you have. They don’t care what your sufferings are; their policies don’t have human face. World Bank is for developed economies, it was actually set up after the Second World War to help rebuild. World bank, IMF and the WTO is just to further enrich the rich economies. The government needs to find creative ways of sustaining the economy.