Sunday, August 26, 2007

Is it it a lack of Ideas or Vision?

Today Mr President in Abuja you gave a detailed explanation of the reason for stopping the Central Bank Board from pursuing the so called 'New Naira' policy. The briefing Sir, is eminently logical, the evidence is absolutely convincing and the position you took is fundamentally sound. It is clear that the Central Bank through its Governor overstepped its legal boundaries and in fact by not consulting with key stakeholders especially the Presidency acted in a very unwise manner. All government executives serve under the primacy of the office of the President and irrespective of their opinion serve at the pleasure of your office until your tenure ends legitimately. So sir, you have formal authority over the Executive governance of Nigeria. Your position would have greater credibility if this press release was your governments first and only public utterance on the matter but your triumphalist AG could not help responding like a bull in the China shop. He expressed your position with the sensitivity of a sledge hammer against the ridge of a hook nose. As a result the CBN Board and Governor as well as the AG have created the perception that this is a turf war undermining confidence in Macro economic management and organization of the country's affiars. Unfortunately perception that the CBN is independent is far more important for this purpose than that the Presidency is right. This should have been handled discretely and with wisdom. But we are where we are.

Sir. on the basis of where we are and my reading of the statement from the Presidency we are confronted with your own failure so far. Like any talented and driven member of any team Professor Soludo has enthusiastically laid out an economic vision of which the new Naira policy is an element but by no means its only plank. It is bold, coherent and in fact inspirational in my opinion. If your only response to it is to challenge it on the basis of its financial efficiency and its compliance with due process as well as rule of law then, these are areas where with remedies. It means you have no problem with the vision but with the methods for achieving its result. I suspect this is not truly the only problem here. Is it possible that part of the problem is that you are yet to set out anything as bold and imaginative as this CBN position? That if you have set the agenda for your administration it has not generated the same level of passionate debate and engagement. Is it possible that it is something you are slowly working your way towards and this might have stolen the thunder?

Nigerian needs you to step to the plate . Rule of law and due process are key processes but they are not inspirational vision that motivate the talented to go beyond the call of duty . We need to be inspired as Nigerians and even if did it in a wrong manner the CBN got people out of complacency and towards dialogue with passion. We will not wait forever and hiding behind due process et al will not suffice. We are waiting for you to move us beyond the duty to respect your office towards the excitement to live for your vision. You do not have a lot of time left. Your credibility depends on it.

1 comment:

SimonSmethMac said...

I am disappointed that the new Naira policy won't go ahead. Surely the issue of a lack of ideas or vision is the current issue with Nigerian politics, there are no political ideologies between parties just personalities.