The thing that has been—it is what will be again, and that which has been done, is that which will be done again; And there is nothing new under heaven—King Solomon of Israel.

OUR leaders are masters at conditioning, and thus have taken us all for granted for so much since after 1970.They have mastered the art of forcing very hard situations upon us,  in a way that when they prescribe their solution, they make old things appear new, and we are left with no options than to clamour and beg for it, whereas there is nothing new under heaven, even in Nigeria.

Whatever we see today, had been done in the past by someone, and so, no new economic plans will come that has not been tried and tested, yet we remain in our rigmarole. So I ask, what can be new in Nigeria except good leadership, without ethnic bias, and greed?

We surely have good leaders only they are not empowered to come to power and contribute.

This is why the recent call  by Professor Wole Soyinka for an Economic Conference  or Summit to discuss the economy holistically to find ways to pull us out of the current doldrums is  very important. And that he made the call after a meeting with the Minister of Information, whom  I call Government Chief Propagandist makes it more important, because APC has won, and are in power, they must begin to drive the economy, accept their weaknesses, seek and invite assistance, and stop the propaganda, and blame game.

The time for the ‘Blame Jonathan Game’ is over. We have heard and seen enough of it. We need change, which is kernel in the Nobel Laureate’s call.

Dr. Frank  Nweke Jnr, has been holding National Economic Summits since 2013, and it has given the nation a type of general pull towards making us a great economic success by 2020, just five years away.

It is for him and his collaborators, the National Planning Commission to consider and review that target date in view of recent realities. They may have to take it to 2040, 0r 2060, it will still be good for there is nothing new under heaven.

In 2014, the Summit was focused on the education sector, and the result was the gargantuan achievements of the Jonathan’s administration in that sector, the over 127 Almajirin Schools, over 25 new Federal Universities with over 60  percent located in the north of Nigeria, and the release of some empowerment for Private universities, polytechnics and the rest . If sustained Nigeria will be headed in the right direction, but we did not hear much of the October 2015 summit, because of politics and change in Aso Rock.

Our problems are ethnicity, and his twin brother corruption, and their grandfather, greed. The north ( majority tribe ) which was most favoured by Jonathan ( from a  minority tribe) wanted power. It was as simple as that! It will be wrong therefore for us to allow these achievements to be swept away, no matter who the Government Chief Propagandist becomes, because a man who does not know from where the rain began to beat him will not know when his drench will dry up!

There is need for continuity of the economic summit, if the current rain of hardship, will not give us cold, break our immunity and afflict us with debilitating economic ailments in the near future.

The October 2015 Summit was to focus on the holistic approach to pulling Nigerian out of the impending economic tempest in view of the plummeting global oil prices. The Summit was to present opportunity to engage with the new administration of Buhari and to highlight priority issues upon which it should focus. In order to do this, the summit was to be structured upon four pillars namely, Macroeconomic  stability & growth, Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy and Framework for response to External and Domestic Shocks. Our current naira free fall could have been averted, the CBN  and Federal Ministry of Finance could have been assisted to avoid the current policy summersaults, if an opportunity or window  for that Summit was created and utilised. Aso Rock and its advisers must accept that change is not just about taking power, but to use it to improve the lot  of the people for the better. To improve the lives and living standards of the people, there must be continuity and fairness, in all facets of governance.

Continuity must not be restricted to taking over and maintenance of movable and immovable property, it must include basic policies that help to sustain credible structures for sound economic planning.

The National Economic Summit or Conference Group is one of such structures.

The problem with this administration is, its very harsh body language, which has put fear and trepidation in its Officers’  psyche. While we accept that corruption must be fought, the fight against it must not kill us. There is too much hard ship presently!

When people are sacked en-mass as we saw in the 2016 Budget imbroglio, on the altar of perceived or real accusations of corruption, it portends danger, and will kill the economy. Who are our economic Gate Takers and Keepers ? None!

Government  itself  from Federal to States levels, need to be more honest with us, because they cannot continue to junket all over the world in private and chartered flights, drive long convoys  of exotic cars, live in opulence on caviars, champagnes and good wines, while they ask us to tighten our belts. We won’t believe them!

The attitude of this government to Conference Reports remains a source of concern to many. The Jonathan administration rightly convened a National Conference which produced a Report that will form the basis for the continued existence of the North and South of Nigeria as one Nation with the expiration of the 1914 Amalgamation treaty.

Aso Rock does not seem to be interested in the implementation of that report, and may therefore not be interested in any Economic Summit or Conference Report.

If it hopes to use military might, and shoot at sight orders against civil agitations to keep the peace, that is wrong and will fail as it would not be in the interest of the government of the day.

By  Clement Udegbe