Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance, on Thursday April 14,
2016, said that there was no political will to save Nigeria's resources under
the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Okonjo-Iweala who said this while talking
on “inequality, growth and resilience,” at George Washington University, said
Nigeria was able to save $22 billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo,
which saved the country in 2008, from global economic meltdown.
“We tried it in Nigeria, we put in an oil price based fiscal rule in 2004 and
it worked very well. We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it
was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those
savings precisely to issue about a 5 per cent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the
economy and we never had to come to the bank or the fund. This time around and
this is the key now, you need not only to have the instrument but you also need
the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015,
we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero
political will. So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why
you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many
other countries.” he said
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