In the heat of the election to halt the
Peoples Democratic Party’s 16 years rule in 2015, the new coalition of
opposition political parties that formed the All Progressives Party
brought in a renowned American political strategist, David Axerold, to
help develop and implement the strategy that facilitated the demise of
the former ruling party.
For those who may not be aware, Axerold
was the chief strategist for President Barack Obama’s successful
campaign in 2008 which made him the first black president of the USA.
Axerold also served in the same capacity for the re-election of Obama in
2012.
The renowned political strategist is currently a director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, USA.
Recall that before the engagement of the
American expert in political strategy, the opposition parties had
failed in three previous election circles, 2003, 2007 and 2011 to unseat
the PDP as the ruling party.
Muhammadu Buhari was a presidential
candidate in all the three times vying on the platforms of three
different political parties and failed to win the contest until the APC
leveraged the expertise of Axerold in the last presidential election in
2015 and won.
The justification for relying on an
American political strategist to facilitate the APC ‘s success is in
part borne out of the fact that Nigeria operates the presidential system
of governance which originated from the USA and the expert whom the APC
engaged had a good track record of achieving victory for Obama twice .
So, I posit that for Nigeria to dig
herself out of the economic hole that it is currently stuck in, it will
be wise to also resort to seeking assistance from the US for a
development strategist because that country remains the biggest economy
in the world which has probably experienced the most economic booms and
bursts in the history of capitalism.
If President Buhari decides to take the
bait of inviting accomplished US economists like Joseph Stiglitz or
Paul Krugman, it won’t be an oddity because even Great Britain hired the
current Governor of Bank of England, Mark Carney, who is a Canadian.
Considering that Britain was once the
colonial master of Canada, it could have been considered demeaning to
seek help from a vassal state, but in the spirit of globalisation and
perhaps mobility of labour, Britons did not shy away from choosing the
most viable option required to solve an identified challenge.
What’s more, the managing director of
the ubiquitous and highly successful Emirates Airline, owned by Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, Tim Clark, is a Briton not an Emirati, which is
quite remarkable.
Krugman and Stiglize, who are Nobel
Prize winners in economics and have at one time or the other served as
advisers to the World Bank and the IMF, are also consultants to numerous
countries including serving as advisers to presidents in their home
country, USA and also Japan, China as well as Greece amongst many others
in Europe and Asia.
The wealth of experience of the
aforementioned economics juggernauts earlier listed cannot be
overstated, but suffice it to say that virtually every economic
principle propounded by John Maynard Keynes, father and purveyor of
supply side economics school of thought, in the past three decades have
been improved upon and advanced by Stiglitz and Krugman among others.
While Stiglitz is the director of the
trail blazing, Earth Institute based in the prestigious University of
Chicago, Krugman is a professor of economics in the City University of
New York and a columnist with New York Times.
Working with a host of equally good
Nigerian economists who are authorities in their rights and who were
part of the transition committee of the government that facilitated the
transfer of operations from the last administration to the present one,
as well participants in the recent government’s parley with the private
sector, Nigeria can leverage both local and international experts to
realise her latent economic potential which have remained untapped even
after 56 years of Independence.
Now, some hardline proponents of
homegrown development may argue against the idea of inviting
international economists to assist in forging a new economic path for
the nation on the basis of the fact that Nigeria is not lacking in
that regard.
Such an attitude will not be surprising,
because in the past, some Nigerians were averse to the engagement of
foreign football coaches to train our teams to attain Olympic and World
Cup standards. They also hinged their objections on similar precepts;
however, the team coached by foreign experts went on to win the Olympic
gold medal in Atlanta, USA in 1986 and Nigerian players also went on to
occupy prime positions in European football clubs which dominated the
leagues until recently.
Evidently, just like the resistance to
reliance on foreign football coaches to train our footballers by some
members of society, the argument against looking towards the advanced
society to source economic experts to help recalibrate our economy may
be hinged more on emotions derived from patriotism, rather than critical
thinking.
Whereas it may not be easily discernible
that Nigeria is in dire need of out-of-the-box ideas to pull her
economy back from the brinks warranting headhunting beyond Nigerian
shores, that is not an indication that the nation is suffering from a
dearth of economists.
In the light of the crash in global
crude oil price, which is Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner, the
devastating actions of aggrieved militants on oil and gas infrastructure
in the oil-rich Niger Delta which has resulted in lock-in or leakages
of crude oil, sometimes in excess of one million barrels that could have
been exported daily, and the consequential rapid decline in the
well-being of the masses, the urgency to fix the Nigerian economy by
changing tactics from sole reliance on oil, becomes more poignant and
urgent, hence the need for international experts to aid diversification
efforts of the government.
Both the Minister of Finance, Kemi
Adeosun, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma
Udo-Udoma, already recognise the benefits of external help hence they
made provision for external borrowing of approximately $4.5bn to augment
the 2016 budget of N6.8tn.
In fact, Adeosun has often repeated in
her public speeches that Nigeria is contemplating sourcing part of the
funding for budget 2016 from euro bonds and other external sources.
Given the foregoing decisions already
taken with respect to shoring up the Nigerian economy via external
funding, seeking the advice of international economists to further help
strengthen the weakening economy should be a next useful step.
Furthermore, there are several other
benefits to engaging the calibre of experts earlier listed. Such
advantages are the enhancement of Nigeria’s chances of gaining
privileged access into certain pools of international funds to lift up
the economy which ordinarily would not be available to her, particularly
because our current economic managers lack the clout and reach to
accomplish such feats.
Take for instance Nigeria’s debt of
about $12bn which was part of the debt owed to the World Bank and the
lMF of which a debt write-off was secured under the watch of President
Olusegun Obasanjo with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as finance minister.
Without doubt, it was a combination of
the international contacts of both Obasanjo as a member of the Eminent
Persons Group, a panel of ex-heads of government of Commonwealth
countries and Okonjo-lweala’s experience as a former World Bank managing
director, that enabled Nigeria secure the unprecedented debt
forgiveness.
Also, consider the billions of Sani
Abacha dollars stashed away in Western banks and still stuck there about
20 years after his demise. Involving creditable economists like the
ones earlier mentioned would give Nigeria’s quest to repatriate the
funds, a positive stamp of credibility and facilitate speedier return
of the loot for badly needed socio-economic development back home.
Being big wigs in economic affairs
globally, famous financial experts can put in good words for Nigeria in
strategic economic and financial fora such that the country can gain
similar shine as countries like the Republic of Georgia, gets when
experts use them as positive reference points for successful economic
reforms.
With the erudite international
financial experts with trackable records of accomplishments, working
with local economists to plot Nigeria’s exit from the present recession
trap, l have no doubt that the country will return to a growth path so
that citizens’ well-being will improve sooner than later.
Onyibe, a development strategist, is a former Commissioner of Information in Delta State
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