Former Minister of Education and former World
Bank Vice-President Africa Division, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said the
relationship between Nigerian citizens and their political elite is like that
between an ‘abused wife’ and her husband. But in what looks like a veiled call
to action, the former minister seems to attribute Nigerians’ governance-induced
suffering to their docility.
“The
relationship between citizens of Nigeria and their political elites is like the
one between an abused wife and her husband. A people that too quickly forget
and move on to the next salacious exploits of their political elite are their
own nemesis!” She said.
In separate tweets on her Twitter handle,
Mrs. Ezekwesili expressed her disdain for how the present crop of leaders run
the Nigerian economy, saying: “Not even
grocery shops run their affairs like this… such vagrant public finance
management is contemptuous of citizens.
“All
those fellows that deceitfully reacted to my factual caution on the frittered
5th oil boom should get ready now. At least five years of high oil prices
holding firm- no major productive investments, no increase or reserves/saving.”
Still on what she considers a slipshod
economic management being run by Nigeria, Ezekwesili tweeted: “A structurally faulty public finance system
zealous for spending on consumption rather than production DEMANDS BOLD action!
“Now,
oil prices are on a downward slope. Imagine, we are asked to be comforted that
we merely have ‘cash flow problem’. Ha!”
She also faulted what she described as
Nigeria’s ‘consumption spending’ at the expense of capital spending, saying “We must BOLDLY discuss, agree and begin to
REDUCE consumption spending (80 per cent) of budget and INCREASE capital
spending (20 per cent).”
In what appears a subtle indictment of
government officials, Ezekwesili added that the call for reduction in the
unusually high cost of governance in Nigeria has never been supported by any
member of the National Assembly because they are benefiting from the status
quo.
“The
MUST HAVE debate on reducing cost of governance suffers a lack of champions
among the ‘ruling elite’ because NASS is in too,” she tweeted.
But she is even angrier with the politicians,
whom she accused of literally living on ‘public corruption and distortion of
politics’.
She tweeted: “A true national dialogue should be between the citizens and the
consumption-loving political elite in all capital parties, a pseudo-private
sector creating nothing but making filthy profits from the public corruption
and distortion of politics.”
On the N255 million armoured BMW car scam in
the aviation sector and apparently faulting the policy that made such
mind-boggling purchase scam possible, Ezekwesili recalled that the
administration under which she served introduced monetisation policy in the
civil service.
“We
introduced monetisation policy. Ask why they canceled it. It will take a
RADICAL RE-BALANCE of public spending for the budget to have any positive
effect on the lives of the poor,” she wrote.
Generally, she blamed pervasive indiscipline
for why the country is failing in all regards – especially its economy.
“I am
immensely irritated by indiscipline. Cumulative indiscipline is the root of
that failure that now stares us in the face as a people. Sadly, Nigeria slides
from spot 138 in 2013 to 147 in the newly released 2014 World Bank Doing
Business ranking,” she tweeted.
(Tribune)
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