What Soludo needs to know

The nation is not always short of ideas. Nigeria has experts with intimidating credentials. Nigeria’s problem has been that of implementation. The problems associated with implementation are worsened by the contradictions inherent in capitalism, which promote poverty.

In a capitalist society some persons must amass wealth in order to inflict poverty on the masses. With the ponderous resources, the bourgeois will transform themselves into empire-builders. They will be given awards and titles of all kinds and descriptions to augment their social importance.

However, Soludo has always given the masses hope that having achieved recapitalisation in the banking sector, the economy will be strong enough to provide jobs for graduates. Again, on the premise of Vision 2020, the CBN Czar has always propagated the good news that Nigeria would rank among the 20 strongest economies in the world as if the feat can be achieved by mere words of mouth. Soludo himself knows that the tall order is not realistic.

For now I am cock sure Soludo cannot be a happy man to hear that the World Bank listed Nigeria as a fragile state. Fragile states as defined by the World Bank are countries characterised by weak institutions, poor governance, high mortality rate etc. I find it difficult to believe that in the face of these bad statistics, the CBN chief is still bold enough to tell Nigerians that by 2020, Nigeria will rank among the 20 greatest economies in the world.

Soludo’s doxology is coming too late because in every part of the country, government has inadvertently built an army of unemployed, disgruntled, angry and frustrated masses.

Soludo’s claim that inflation is on a downward trajectory cannot be sustained because the average Nigerian now knows that the price of bread has increased by 30 percent, so it is with other essential commodities.

The truth of the matter is that by 2015, Nigeria may not meet the MDG goals and worse still Nigeria may not even emerge as one of the 50 greatest economies in the world by 2020. We have frog-leaped some crucial stages of our development process. We have neglected the Nigerian in our development march.

Nigeria cannot adopt a short-cut strategy to fully utilise and maximise her economic potentials.

The economic plan that will liberate Nigeria is therefore not one with a capitalist colouration. It must be one that is people-oriented. What Soludo has been offering Nigeria are economic plans premised on bogus economic indices. They may appear to be working now but it is only a matter of time before they will crumble like a park of cards.

True development must be people driven.

Idumange John,
Niger Delta University,
Bayelsa State.

Ribadu’s successor, our concern

THE exit of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu from the EFCC should not be a problem to Nigerians but what we should concern ourselves with, is who succeeds him?

Nobody is indispensable and Ribadu is not the most honest man in Nigeria. Life itself is a stage and man an actor on it. We should therefore take it that Ribadu has finished his own part of the play and has quit the stage. It may be quite difficult for many to accept the fact that Ribadu must leave the EFCC, going by his records. But like some have argued, the EFCC is not about the individual it is an institution; the war on corruption is not also about an individual it concerns the whole of Nigeria.

What the government must, however, note is that, who takes over from Ribadu is a matter of great concern to Nigerians. The EFCC is, no doubt, an institution but the success of EFCC as an institution will be greatly determined by the calibre of people who work there, especially the head.

The person who must take over from Ribadu must be very competent. He must be a fearless Nigerian. The quality of the person who takes over from Ribadu will determine whether the present administration has zero tolerance for corruption or not.

The suggested Col. Abubakar Umar (Rtd.) would be quite good as the EFCC boss. Col. Umar, with his untainted military background, his love for good governance and above all his abhorrence of avarice, is, to me, qualified for the job. It is, however, left for the government to decide. But the government’s choice must be acceptable to Nigerians. We are, indeed, concerned.

Adelani Olawuyi,
P. O. Box 750,
Ogbomoso.