Names Prof Ojetunji Aboyade, Prof Ikenna Nzimiro, Michael Omolayole, Professor Akin Mabogunje, Dr Chu Okongwu, Chief Olu Falae, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu as top economists, technocrats tapped for economic agenda
FORMER military president, General Ibrahim Babangida has provided details of how his regime gathered top Nigerian economists and technocrats to salvage the nation’s economy during his time as head of state.
Babangida, who named top economists and technocrats including Prof Ojetunji Aboyade, Prof Ikenna Nzimiro, Michael Omolayole, Professor Akin Mabogunje, Dr Chu Okongwu, Chief Olu Falae, Dr.Kalu Idika Kalu as some of the top economists and technocrats tapped by his regime to structure the nation’s economy, said that the regime was certain the economy needed reforms.
He also justified the decision of his administration to deploy state cohesive power in crushing the riots embarked upon by Nigerians following the economic hardship caused by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) introduced by his regime.
The details were contained in Chapter 7 of his autobiography titled: A Journey in Service presented to the public last Thursday in Abuja, a gathering that attracted President Bola Tinubu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other past presidents and heads of state of the country.
The former military ruler dealt extensively on the economic agenda of his administration, how he was able to assemble renowned professionals and experts to prepare the blueprint of the administration, as well as the adoption of SAP in an effort aimed at rescuing the country’s economy from a quagmire.
He said he and his colleagues were not only convinced that economy was in bad shape but that Nigeria possessed the resources and human capital to chart a new path of reform.
He said: “Even before assuming office, I was of the view that we needed to reform the economy along free market lines to free the energies of our people and begin to realise the full potential of our economic endowments. Over the years, I had made extensive acquaintances with knowledgeable and experienced Nigerians in various fields. I reached out to as many renowned Nigerian thinkers and persons of knowledge as possible, especially in business, finance and economics.
“I naturally started my consultations with those I had met and had practical contact with over the years. In this regard, I reached out to Professor Gabriel Olusanya, whose intellect and experience had impressed me greatly during my tenure at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). “Through him, I expanded the group of reputable Nigerians to consult on how best to design an appropriate economic reform agenda. In this regard, I contacted Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, Professor Ikenna Nzimiro, Mr Michael Omolayole, Professor Akin Mabogunje and Dr Chu Okongwu. We could rely on the technocratic expertise and vast bureaucratic experience of men like Olu Falae.
“Through Ike Nwachukwu, who had been the military governor of Imo State, I engaged and incorporated Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, who had done impressive work on the state’s economy.
“Before that, he had worked at the World Bank and served on the Asia Desk, where he garnered extensive knowledge on what became the Asian Tigers. In particular, his creative approach to rescuing the economy of Imo State made a positive impression on me.
“Under the famed ‘Imo Formula,’ he excited me, and I brought him to the federal level to help us with the economics of spending only what you have. Such prudent management and economic realism was what, in my view, our desperate economic situation required.
“What I found exciting about working with these outstanding intellectuals, men of ideas and experience, was that they were a community of ideas. They knew and respected each other. With each one you consulted and brought on board, he had a string of other colleagues with similar expertise to bring along.
“In little or no time, we had a virtual faculty of people with extensive ideas, vast experience and diverse backgrounds. We interacted through a series of dialogues and consultations in very enlightening sessions.
“We became more like a community of friends and colleagues. But we were united by our shared commitment to making Nigeria self-sufficient and workable. We had endless brainstorming sessions on different aspects of national life, especially the economy.
“I found our brainstorming sessions very enlightening and refreshing. People brought their vast experiences to bear on the problems that faced us then. In particular, I recall the insights of Professor Ikenna Nzimiro, who brought a lot of life to our sessions by relating our present problems to his experiences from the past. He would, for instance, jovially ask me how old I was when he was active in the Zikist movement!
“In assembling our economic team, I was careful to strike an ideological mix without allowing our sessions to become a contest of ideologies. I aimed to get the diversity of perspectives into a pragmatic set of solutions for our urgent national economic problems.
“Through these discussion sessions, some of which lasted for a few hours, we struck a consensus that the Armed Forces Ruling Council shared. We agreed that our most urgent priority was to rescue the national economy by putting it on a new footing of an open market.
“A clear and urgent reality was that we needed to act decisively to bring back the economy from the brink of an abyss.
“The economic crisis, one of the main reasons for our initial intervention in 1983 against the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, had worsened from a crisis to a virtual urgent catastrophe.
“In the immediate post-Shagari military government, there was a shared consensus among the military leadership that our people needed to be saved from the prospect of a failed economy and state. A nation of our size with a failed economy would be a significant strategic threat to the West African sub-region, if not all of Africa.
He said many government-owned and controlled companies “were all loss-making and wasteful,” because the government was the sole driver of the economy, adding: “We were determined to change that system but through a policy switch.
“An essential part of our reform agenda was to divest government interest from too many enterprises. We were determined to privatise the economy by selling government interests in virtually all the non-strategic enterprises it had invested in. We set up the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) headed by Hamza Zayyad. The committee’s work was to document all the government-owned enterprises and recommend those that qualified for outright privatisation and those that would be commercialised for greater efficiency and commercial viability. It was a massive exercise, and it dawned on us for the first time the sheer quantum of wealth and assets that had been wasting away, locked up under government ownership of enterprises,” Babangida stated.
“Some enterprises that were privatised then were transformed by their new owners into thriving concerns. Some achieved success by entering into partnerships with foreign concerns. Others did so by engaging innovative Nigerian management and recapitalisation. Sadly, many privatised entities have either been grounded and wound up or have had their assets stripped to bare bones by their irresponsible new owners whose original interest was to strip assets and sell off the carcass of these enterprises,” he added.
Writing about the massive protests that rocked the nation as a result of the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme, Babangida noted that though his government had envisaged a public outcry over the tough economic measures, the administration could not brook the stiff opposition being a military regime.
