If 40% Of Politicians Knew Basic Economics, Nigeria Would’ve Grown – Ezekwesili

Former World Bank’s Vice President for African Region, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said most Nigerian politicians lack basic knowledge of economics.

Naija News reports that Mrs. Ezekwesili said the country’s economic crisis was a product of poor economic policies of Nigeria’s politicians.

In an interview with News Central, the former World Bank’s African Region Vice President decried that political leaders do not think through the implications of their policies before implementing.

An economic policy expert, Ezekwesili explained that Nigerian political leaders spend time planning for the next election than implementing economic policies to better the citizens.

“Listen, I would be surprised if up to 40% of the people in our politics understand basic economics. If they did, you would not see some of the things that we’ve seen in this country. You simply see a situation where people scratch their head and say, let us do this. It will work. No. What’s the economic evidence for your policy choice? I looked at some of the misses, significant misses that we’ve had.

“I see people, they say things like we’re going to make sure that we address the subsidy problem in petroleum, for example. But what they fail to realize is that increasing the price of a product in a sector that does not allow the basic principles of demand and supply to work without it being impeded by all forms of regulatory blowbacks, it is simply a psycho,” she said.

The former Minister of Solid Minerals noted that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector could have been a game changer for the country’s economy, if leaders allowed transparency in the sector.

She stressed that most Nigerian leaders see the oil and gas sector as a cash cow, adding that the sector has been hijacked by the political class. She said the oil and gas sector required the same reform that took place in the telecommunications sector.

“So you look at the oil and gas, petroleum sector of our country. What do you see happen? There’s a political hijack of that space. The opportunities in that sector will completely transform differently if the political class were not looking at that sector as the sector that whoever is the leader wants to hold close to their heart. It is not allowing the ingenuity, the innovation, the creativity, and the kind of vast opportunities that are possible in that sector where it’s to go through a similar kind of thing as what the telecom sector went,” she stated.