A former Minister of Education and 2019 presidential aspirant, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, has reacted to the constitution of an Economic Team by President Muhammadu Buhari, Igbere TV reports.
Igbere TV had reported that President Buhari, on Monday, announced the constitution of an eight-man Economic Advisory Council (EAC), with Adedoyin Rasaq Salami as Chairman.
A statement obtained by Igbere TV issued by Buhari’s Spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the Council will replace the current Economic Management Team (EMT) led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and will be reporting directly to the President.
Reacting to the development, the former Minister expressed optimism that the Council would tell the President “how he mismanaged the economy in the last four years”.
Ezekwesili, who acknowledged that the new Council has strong membership, however, said the development was not new in the American system which Nigeria “copied”.
She described the just disbanded Economic Management Team (EMT) led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as ‘figure head’, alleging that the VP was not directly in charge.
Read below, a transcript of the full tweets by the former Minister as brought to you by Igbere TV…
“The setting up a Council of Economic Advisors is in itself one of the features of the American Presidential system which we copied.
Strong membership & that’s really great.
“I hope the first thing they do is tell the President how he mismanaged the Economy in the last 4 years.
“For those who will jump on this timeline to say, “it was not the President that was in charge of the Economy. It was the VP chairing the Economic Team” please don’t bother. The President was managing the conomy. All those BAD Monetary Policy decisions were made by him.
“Two, the President was managing the Economy. All those strange Fiscal Policy decisions were made by him.
“Both the CBN Governor and the Ministers of Finance were not acting based on any Economic Management Team decisions. For WIA. Now at least the pretense is over about Economy.
“The EMT was in reality chaired by the VP who had no power over Core Economic Policy decisions. The other side of the Presidency did not mind having him be the cannon fodder for all the extremely Bad Economic Policy decisions.
“A President, not VP runs the Economy. I know that.
“The remit of the Council of Economic Advisers seems to suggest it rightly as “External Visitors” who meet monthly and then meet the President Quarterly. If so, setting it up as a full replacement of the EMT which should remain as the Technical Team that it should be is a mistake.
“The proper structure of that their EMT should have had is two levels of hierarchical control:
An EMT Meeting chaired by the President with his VP as Vice Chair.
An EMT Technical Meeting chaired by the Minister of Finance with CORE Technical Members.
“Structure is Everything.
“When people say the VP during our time in government “was in charge of the Economy” , I always correct them.
The VP was simply Chair of the National Council on Privatization and also the National Econonic Council (a meeting of Federal Government & States(Governors). Not EMT.
“A combination of a Two-Layered Structure of the EMT plus Council of Economic Advisers of the calibre of minds just appointed would be brilliant.
It would bring 3 things together:
- Topmost Political power.
- Coordinated Internal Technical Skills.
- Input of External Skills.
“The Economy which is currently stuck in a steady state of Low-Equilibrium Growth needs a 24/7 level of engagement of:
- Topmost Political power (that’s ready to discard outdated and pseudo-socialist ideas)
- Coordinated Internal Competent Skills.
- Brilliant external Skills.
“Hopefully, our couple of outstanding eggheads that are named to the Council of Economic Advisers will ignore all those genuflecting sycophancy that surrounds @MBuhari and tell him the kind of Truth that annoys them but which must be heard for our Economy to Grow and Prosper.”
