COVID-19 not excuse for Nigeria to slide into recession – Moghalu

Nigerian political economist, lawyer, and former presidential candidate in the last general elections, Kingsley Moghalu has said the report that Nigeria has entered into another recession is not surprising, noting that COVID-19 pandemic is no excuse for the economic downturn.

Moghalu in a series of tweets on his Twitter page, said Nigeria’s economy will not be transformed until the country is led by an intellectual and competent leader.

Moghalu who also former deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday said unless the problem of leadership selection and constitution structure is addressed, Nigeria’s economy cannot create wealth for its citizens except for those with political connections.

His tweets read: “No surprise Nigeria is entering yet another recession. Until Nigeria is led by an intellectually competent leader, with visionary politics backed by sound economic thinking and knowledge, economic transformation will remain a dream. It’s for citizens to do the needful.

“Covid-19 contributed to our current recession, but is no excuse. Nigeria’s economy has been weak for several years. Was the 2016 recession caused by COVID-19 too? The deeper problems of economic management led to our weak response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“South Africa’s budgetary fiscal stimulus response to the crisis was $26 billion. Ours was a budgetary provision of N500 billion ($1.3 billion) and a @cenbank intervention of N1 trillion ($3 billion). And only a fraction of our desperately poor households received the 20K disbursements from the money budgeted.

“Unless we address the problem of our constitutional structure and the leadership selection problem in our politics, Nigeria’s economy simply can’t create prosperity for its citizens, only for a very few with the right political connections for rent-seeking.