By Uche Onyeali
As Nigerians continue to grapple under scorching economic hardship occasioned by the policies of the current administration, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, has urged President Bola Tinubu against implementing every advice offered by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
Jega, who gave this advice while speaking at the ongoing 2024 Annual Directors’ Conference with the theme:‘Good Governance as a Catalyst for Economic Recovery, Growth and Development,’ organised by the Chartered Institute of Directors of Nigeria, CIoD, said while it is good and useful to engage global financial institutions, government must be careful not to plunge the country into long-term problem.
The former INEC boss also called for a reform of the leadership recruitment process, saying the major challenge confronting Nigeria is that most leaders are not prepared for leadership.
Bretton Woods institutions have been accused of advising President Tinubu on the present economic policies, especially the removal of subsidy from petroleum products, as well as the floating of the naira, that have plunged the country into inflationary pressure.
The hardship in Nigeria has been widely blamed on the ‘anti-people’ policies suggested by the World Bank and IMF.
However, speaking at a briefing on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC, recently, IMF’s African Region Director, Abebe Selassie claimed that the organisation did not advise Tinubu to remove fuel subsidy.
According to Selassie, “The decision was a domestic one. It was President Tinubu’s decision. We don’t have programmes in Nigeria. Our role is limited to regular dialogue, as we have with other nations like Japan or the UK.”
In his position on the economic challenges in the country, Jega advised Nigerians to pay serious attention to nurturing and entrenching democratic governance, rather than merely good governance as being promoted by the World Bank.
“This is the only way to place Nigeria on a sustainable trajectory of what I call‘People-oriented development processes.”
He reiterated that while it is good to engage the World Bank and other organisations, “we should not swallow hook, line and sinker what they bring to us.
“We must be very careful in terms of the measures they have suggested to us because if we don’t do that, we may advertently or inadvertently fall into greater medium and longer-term problems even if we think we are seeing short-term benefits from that kind of engagement.”
