The Economist, what?

Everyone who puts pen to paper, who wants to call himself a writer must first be a lover of knowledge. When all is said and done, what you write should be an outpouring of what you have learnt to be true and right, and most importantly, accurate. It is here that I have found The Economist’s blog, The Economist Explains lacking.

Usually, when one sees the word ‘explain’, the expectation is that clarity and understanding of the facts are in the works. Not so for this article written, and more annoyingly, published by The Economist. It doesn’t take so much to put a few words together; I mean even those with a fair knowledge of any language can do a passable job at giving an explanation.

The way I see it, The Economist Explains, a blog hosted by The Economist offers a pot-pourri of poorly investigated articles that do little more than cast aspersions on individuals and governments in a way that leaves readers wondering what the focus is.

One of the articles on June 26, 2016 attempted to talk about how Nigeria is ‘fighting corruption.’ And how did The Economist approach this important topic? With the same careless slant a sleazy tabloid would take on a gossip story.

I don’t know if I should be more insulted about the derogatory tone used in the entire piece or by the writer’s assumption that the people who read the article will actually not see through the writer’s laziness and lack of commitment to carrying out a thorough research on the issues raised.

I hope that The Economist understands the implication of crapping all over what could have been a very good piece of writing. Its credibility will begin to wane till the blog goes from ‘The Economist Explains’ to ‘The Economist, what?’

Of challenges. However, like many Nigerians, I will not endorse an article filled with allegations that have no root in thorough investigations and is laden with badly reported and misinterpreted facts.

In an article, the current finance minister is promised for her tenacity something which the writer says has helped her clamp down on spending by governors and implement several measures to save already depleting funds, such as the widely popular Treasury Savings Account (TSA).

If only these words were accurate. ‘Her TSA’ was, in fact, the pet project of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Adeosun’s predecessor. How a magazine like The Economist could have missed that baffles me. A simple two-minute Google search would have helped this apparently mentally lazy writer get the actual facts and state them as they are.

However, as with the mentally lazy, the task may appear daunting, so I shall set them straight. And this, I choose to achieve through the citing of an article published by a Nigerian national daily in April 2016 (long before Kemi Adeosun dreamt of becoming Minister of Finance).

Okonjo-Iweala said, “With the treasury single account, we have a tool that helps us to see the balances of governments at one time from all government agencies because we are drawing resources into the Central Bank”.

And another published as part of a congratulatory message delivered by Goodluck Jonathan when Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was appointed GAVI Chair:

“Through your vision, the nation was able to implement some rewarding reforms in public financial management including the launch of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to boost dwindling revenue, as well as the introduction of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which eliminated thousands of ghost workers from the public
service system”.

As for the acclaimed tenacity of Mrs. Adeosun, many will testify to the fact that she is now popularly known for her attempt to draw Nigeria further into debt than any other finance minister before her. A blog that is an offshoot of the renowned The Economist should not be found spewing such stories that have no truth. If its remit is to launder the image of friends of The Economist then it is doing a very poor job.
Ebun is a public relations professional.