Lately, the Central Bank of Nigeria in a two-page Press Release, laboured to corroborate the Finance Ministry’s earlier clarifications on “the meaning, structure and management of the nation’s foreign reserves”. CBN defines external reserves, appropriately, as external assets held in foreign currencies by a country’s Central Bank for the “primary purpose of safeguarding the international value of the legal tender currency (i.e. the naira)”.

In apparent response to the Action Congress’ admonition that the nation’s economy was “gradually grinding to a halt”, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, unexpectedly painted a brighter economic picture, and sought to clarify popular misconceptions on the issues of our external reserves and the alleged discrepancies between reported reserves balances of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Regrettably, however, the canvassed positive indices of GDP growth and claims of fiscal prudence are not corroborated by the ugly reality on ground.

There are media concerns on the potential adverse impact of delay on budget implementation and the possibility of the Legislature overriding presidential opposition to 2013 budget enactment.

Our governments have spent billions of naira over time to promote a positive image for Nigerians everywhere. Regrettably, the popular perception of the Nigerian character remains that of greed, self-interest and other such ingenious criminal escapades. The promoted brand of “Good People, Great Nation” never really took off, and it has become clear that neither catchy slogans nor sexy packaging can change public perception of what is intrinsically a bad product!

The recognition of the abysmal depth of corruption in public office is probably shared by all discerning citizens of this country; consequently, some well-meaning Nigerians have prescribed the death penalty for anyone convicted of treasury looting! The obvious provocation of the recent slap-on-the-wrist punishment to a civil servant for stealing over N27bn of Police Pension Fund may have prompted the call for more severe penalty!

Public discourse recently focused on the charge by Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili (Oby), a former Senior Assistant and Minister in Obasanjo’s administration, that the Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency had frittered away accumulated reserves of about $67bn since the change of baton in 2007.

The Central Bank Director of Research, Charles Mordi, at the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) forum recently in Lagos, claimed that CBN owns $30bn out of the total reserve of about $43bn.

The first anniversary of the 2012 “Occupy Nigeria” fuel subsidy protest was marked recently in Lagos by Pastor Bakare-led ‘Save Nigeria Group’ with a lecture titled “Nigeria’s Fiscal and Monetary Crisis: the Way Forward”. The occasion afforded Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the opportunity to publicly defend its failure to create an enabling environment for industries and businesses to bloom, in consonance with its core mandate for price stability. The major indicators of price stability, of course, relate to conducive low single-digit interest rates for bank loans and an even lower rate of inflation.

Every year, Nigeria’s media traditionally celebrate persons adjudged to have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of endeavour or indeed, in their apparent dedication and commitment to their responsibilities as public servants.

It was a welcome departure from tradition when the national assembly received the 2013 budget proposals in early October 2012! Thankfully, the early submission allowed the legislature to effectively sharpen its oversight functions on a host of government ministries and agencies, and in the process, uncover huge shortfalls between approved budget sums and actual implementation in 2012.

At the conclusion of the 2012 IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in October, the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, decried the dollarization of the Nigerian economy to some Nigerian journalists, who were sponsored to that event in Japan. According to the Governor, his anxiety was equally shared by President Goodluck Jonathan.

One of the decisions taken by the National Assembly before the Christmas break was the appropriation of an additional sum of N161.6bn to augment the initial N888.1bn voted for subsidy in the budget of the outgoing year. This would bring total fuel subsidy claims for 2012 to over N1.05tn; i.e. the equivalent of over 20% of the 2012 expenditure budget of N4.7tn. The budget allocation of over N500bn for interest and service charges for domestic debt comes a distant second to fuel subsidy.

The other day, a friend narrated a story, which I found stranger than fiction; the story related to the travails of a family who lost a successful and illustrious breadwinner, who, incidentally, died without a Will. The family’s elders were consequently entrusted with the responsibility of efficiently managing the estate of the deceased.

The primary underlying principle in a social contract in a modern democratic dispensation is that of equality of all persons.

Instructively, the higher the degree of social inequity, the greater also will be the level of national instability, and the more restrained will be that nation’s economic growth trajectory. Consequently, it becomes inexplicable that some government policies and initiatives facilitate the prosperity of a favoured sub-group at the expense of the vast majority.

At the Second Annual Capital Market Retreat in Warri, the CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, made a strong case against the current dedication of about 70% of national income to purely consumption by civil servants and politicians, who comprise less than 1% out of our population of over 160 million.