Obiageli Ezekwesili, the former vice president of the World Bank for the African Region, has stated that the majority of Nigerian politicians are not familiar with the fundamentals of economics.
According to reports, Mrs. Ezekwesili stated that Nigeria’s economic crisis was caused by the politicians’ bad economic policies.
In a News Central interview, the former vice president of the World Bank’s African Region bemoaned the fact that political leaders do not consider the consequences of their policies before enacting them.
Political leaders in Nigeria spend more time preparing for the next election than putting economic policies into place that will benefit the populace, according to Ezekwesili, an expert in economic policy.
“Listen, I’d be shocked if as many as 40% of our political leaders knew the fundamentals of economics. Some of the things we’ve witnessed in this nation would not exist if they did. You see a scenario where people say, “Let’s do this,” and scratch their heads. That will work. No. What financial justification do you have for your policy decision? I examined a few of our notable misses.
“I hear people say things like, ‘We’re going to make sure that we handle the gasoline subsidy problem, for example. However, they are unaware that raising a product’s price in an industry that prevents the fundamental laws of supply and demand from operating without being hampered by various regulatory blowbacks is just insane, she said.
The former Minister of Solid Minerals pointed out that if authorities had permitted transparency in the oil and gas industry, it could have revolutionized Nigeria’s economy.
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She emphasized that the political elite has taken over the oil and gas industry, which is viewed as a cash cow by the majority of Nigerian officials. The same transformation that occurred in the telecoms sector, she argued, was needed in the oil and gas industry.
You look at our nation’s petroleum industry, which includes oil and gas. You see what happens? That area is being taken over by the political party. If the political elite didn’t view that industry as one that the leader wants to be passionate about, the opportunities in that area would be very different. “It is preventing the creativity, ingenuity, and innovation that are possible in that industry where it is going through a similar kind of thing as what the telecom sector went,” she said.
