On
Monday, June 10, at the third round of the 2013 ministerial platform in
Abuja, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance,
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, spoke glowingly about the Nigerian economy, saying
the fundamentals were strong and that the economy was buoyant beyond
danger. But a few hours later, on Tuesday, when
all the doors were closed, the minister sang a different tune.
She told
her colleagues in government point blank that the Nigerian economy is
shaky despite the official fundamentals and that drastic steps are
needed to save it from collapse.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala spoke at the 50th meeting of the 15-member Federal Government Economic Implementation Team held behind closed-doors at the presidential villa.
The implementation team is headed by the
minister, and meets every week. It was established by President
Goodluck Jonathan to oversee the effective implementation of decisions
of the Economic Management Team chaired by the president.
Other members of the committee are the
Ministers of Petroleum Resources, Power, Agriculture, Trade &
Investment, Works and Health as well as the Ministers of State for
Finance and Health, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, the
Special Adviser to the President (Monitoring & Evaluation), the
Director-General of the Budget Office, the Director General of the
Bureau of Public Enterprise and a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
At Tuesday’s meeting, a presidency source said, the minister painted a
gloomy picture of the economy and hinted that there was an urgent need
for “stringent budgetary measures” to arrest the downward slide.
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