By Anayo Ezugwu

PROFESSOR Anya O. Anya, former chief executive officer, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, has warned that the continuous loss of jobs by Nigerians and the drop in foreign direct investment will impact on the Nigerian economy negatively.

In an exclusive interview with Realnews, Anya said Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has tried in reviving the economy but the economy will change in the next two years.

“One thing we must say is that Emefiele has tried in managing a very difficult situation. Therefore, understandably, he is being rewarded for that. But my suspicion is that in the next four years, the priorities in Nigeria and therefore, the economy will change.

“Whether the medicines he has applied to the economy over this last three years or so will apply under the new circumstances. I don’t think anybody can say not even Emefiele himself. The economy is entering an unchartered territory. People are still losing their jobs, industries are still closing, foreign direct investment has continued to decrease.

“So frankly, it can only be a bold man or woman despite your degrees from Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford on the economy can tell you what will happen to the Nigeria economy in the next two years. I won’t go to the next four years, I said in the next two years,” he said.

Anya regretted that lack of a capable manager for the fiscal aspect of the economy is slowing businesses in the country. “The fiscal manager is supposed to be the minister of finance, but then the question is, giving where we are, those who have manned this portfolio in the last three years, do they have the cognate experience that goes with managing fiscal policies in the kind of confused economy that we have.

“Some may even suggest that if you bring the hottest professor from Harvard or Oxford to manage the fiscal side of the Nigerian economy that they won’t succeed because the rules that apply in managing fiscal policies are subverted in Nigeria by many disorderly things that we do. Whether it is managing of Customs, Immigration, and industries, government takes disproportionate share of the functions that belong to the private sector and when you have that kind of contradiction what comes of it cannot be what you expect.

“It will not be the things that those who design the fiscal policies expect to happen because the conditions that are supposed to be present that make possible the application do not exist in Nigeria. If the economy is moving in the right way and wealth is being created not public funds being appropriated for private purposes, corruption will not loom so large in our consciousness because it will just be a little irritant if the economy was doing well.

“The challenge of even fiscal policy is to bring out policies that can control the temptation for certain things that are not allowed because that is what corruption is. And then you sow impunity. People will do things that are not acceptable and you will now start saying that it has happened before. When you make rules, the rules are supposed to apply across the board. It is when you differentiate the application of rules between A and B you create the opportunity for people to subvert the system,” he said.

– June 29, 2018 @ 12:29 GMT |