Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has described recent comments by the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, on using money to drive economic productivity as not only simplistic but also hollow.
The policy group noted that Obi’s position, which he canvassed in a recent TV interview, showed a pedestrian understanding of the national economy.
In a policy statement signed by its Chairman, Dr Niyi Akinsiju, IMPI argued that economic productivity should not be a stand-alone item that could be automatically fixed with a single-dose action.
It said: “We do not begrudge Mr Obi accusing the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being ineffective in implementing economic policies, but we consider his proposition of injecting money into productivity as the singular solution to Nigeria’s economic malaise in the first two years of this administration, if he were to be the President, as manipulative and borne of a deficient understanding of historical issues that underline Nigeria’s economic trajectory.
“He claims his silver bullet proposition would lead to a more productive and sustainable economy. Coming from a former governor and one who had chaired the board of a commercial bank, we found this submission puzzling and, at the same time, vexatiously narrow.
“The fact is that productivity is not a stand-alone item in the universe of economic productivity. It is, by fact and praxis, made up of different components and values aggregation.
The policy group pointed at Nigeria’s economic challenges and wondered what the former Anambra State Governor would have done differently from steps taken by the Tinubu administration.
“Since 2014, Nigeria has had to contend with challenges of low revenue exacerbated by policies that continuously erode productivity, such as fuel subsidies and multiple exchange rates.
“Despite the storm associated with the removal of fuel subsidies and the harmonisation of multiple foreign exchange windows, the Tinubu administration expressed a profound understanding of the national economy by conducting the equivalence of a surgical incision on the economy,” the group added.
IMPI added that contrary to Obi’s claims, its analysis, which aligned with that of the World Bank, showed that there were enough pointers to the success of the ongoing economic reforms.
The policy group also questioned Obi’s understanding of the constitutional mandates of the tiers of government on the basis of his position on the President taking responsibility for primary healthcare and basic education in Nigeria.
