What about Soludo’s solutions?

Many thanks to Charles (sorry!) Chukwuma Soludo for bringing to the fore critical issue of the economy. His recently published over 20,000 word-overload are refreshing narratives from the daily partisan diatribes on endless corruption charges and counter charges (apology to Fela’s you be thief, I no be thief lyrics!), the ever chaotic judicial pronouncements, endless […]

Many thanks to Charles (sorry!) Chukwuma Soludo for bringing to the fore critical issue of the economy. His recently published over 20,000 word-overload are refreshing narratives from the daily partisan diatribes on endless corruption charges and counter charges (apology to Fela’s you be thief, I no be thief lyrics!), the ever chaotic judicial pronouncements, endless vote counting, mandate nullifications/validations and (you-guess-where next) bomb explosions! By the way,  what does “words efficiency” mean to a Professor of economics whose sermons on efficient resource allocation is undermined by his ever long, long, repetitive, (almost inefficient) sermon overload. So much for Dogon Turenchi!, long long essay? The former CBN governor can certainly make do with minimum words, maximum wisdom in his remarkably useful interventions. Certainly not many Nigerians battling with power outages would be so patient to read him through. He loves debate, no doubt. But a 55-year old independent Republic called Nigeria begging for development is certainly NOT a debating society. Nonetheless I still recommend Soludo’s Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election (January 25, 2015) and ”Can a new Buharinomics save Nigeria? (November, 2015) for those who want to prove exception to worsening national stupidity on the economy.
Yours comradely was an earliest enthusiast of the ascendancy of Professor Soludo as the governor of the CBN in 2004.  In this column in an article titled ‘CBN: Return of an Economist’  (Daily Trust, Monday 17th May, 2004,) I heralded with enthusiasm an economist CBN Governor (just as I did when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (now His Royal Highness!) also an economist succeeded him. The hope was that an economist governor, would look at the bigger picture as distinct from the limited horizon of an accountant governor Chief Joseph Sanusi. There was once a Nigeria (with apology to Chinua Achebe!) that produced great CBN governors like the late Dr. Clement Isong, Harvard trained economist, who together with the then finance minister, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo  managed the war economy without external borrowing, without inflation and the notorious least resistance option, naira devaluation!  Joseph Sanusi’s tenure, (true to the callings of an accountant!), was disappointingly characterized with books balancing as distinct from meeting the development objectives, CBN was set up to achieve. Economic watchers would recall that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo once “invaded” the Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos  bemoaning the prohibitive double digit interest rate and condemning the banking sector as a non-value adding (or better put, value-subtracting!) sector. After the “undiplomatic soldiering”, President Obasanjo fired Chief Joseph Sanusi as the CBN governor, who ad-infinitum rationalized rather than frontally confronted the regime of high rate.
Soludo in his latest intervention makes fetish of the recent alleged Presidency’s directive to the Bank on the value of the Naira, ignoring the fact that the CBN governor Emefiele has been loud on Development Financing, however defined. As we have seen from the tenure of Joseph Sanusi and indeed the reversal of Soludo’s controversial shock therapatic naira re-denomination, notwithstanding the academic desirability of CBN autonomy in managing the nation’s monetary policy, the burden ultimately is on the President (who as Soludo also agrees) is the one we elected, NOT on an unelected and (with Soludo’s failed bid at political relevance) not an unelectable governor of the CBN.
I bear witness that Soludo in principle lived up to my expectation as an activist economist governor of the apex bank. What with Banks’ recapitalization, the Financial System strategy, FSS 2020, introduction of new notes and coins which he launched with such international fanfare ( whatever happened to costs and cost consciousness!) and the one that led to his tenure non-renewal; Naira re-denomination! Let’s interrogate the quality of his performance as the CBN governor, but the man with “big ideas” (his words) did perform with serial drama including road shows to introduce new coins that had since disappeared.  Professor Soludo however stretches objectivity to the limit when he self praises his tenure almost as the best tenure in Central Banking.
Haba! If you cannot be self-critical of your shortcomings why would anybody take your criticisms of others serious? Soludo spares nobody, but himself despite empirical data (he encourages us to have respect for data). For such a serious intervention on the management of national economy that tasks our imaginations and thinking, I think critical sobering charity should start with us all in line with the change mantra. In one breadth he sounded presidential! Just witness him; “.., and despite paying $12 billion for external debt, and losing over $15 billion during the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis) I left behind $45 billion”.
In another breadth, he attributed the taunted gains to President Obasanjo who we all know spent the first tenure junketing for some debt relief! Soludo was curiously muted on the damning discovery of his successor; Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The issues are familiar by now: Under Soludo’s watch; Trillion of Naira non-performing loans, (NPLs), corporate bad governance, insiders’ dealings and sheer corporate impunity of varying hues! Many thanks to the CBN under Sanusi for living up to its brief as a lender of last resort; some Ntrillions, $4 billion dollars taken by both the CBN and NIDC as bail outs for few corporate criminals ( some were actually convicted) in a desperate attempt to preempt the worse alternative; mass run on the affected banks! Apparently another bureaucracy known as AMCON socializing the corporate losses of few bankers has come to stay, no thanks to Soludo’s legacy of non- regulation. 
Reading Soludo sermonizing on how not to throw scarce resources at the new national carrier (with the proposed national carrier), calling for immediate removal of oil subsidy, and cautioning on cash transfer to the poor, while remaining muted on the socialization of the losses in trillions of Naira, recorded under his watch as CBN governor is academically unimpressive. With Soludo it is clear that the issue is not the preeminence of the economists but the economics of the economists. It is interesting to read Soludo’s macroeconomics with dubious nostalgia for the discredited structural adjustment (SAP). PMB was mentioned almost 30 times in his narrative wondering if we are dealing with Buhariphobia or Buharieconomics or both.
I once wrote in this column that the only thing constant with the former World Bank consultant, former CBN governor and failed PDP politician (almost in that order!) is change! He indeed once said what Nigeria needs “is Revolution” not just reform! Even neo-socialists are not so courageous with such demagogy! The former CBN governor actually revolutionarized his name to Chukwuma Sulodo from Charles Soludo. The quality of his suit might however not differentiate him as such from Prince Charles of Wales. Never judge a book by his cover! I agree with Soludo that policies, including monetary policies are about choices. Are we targeting inflation or employment and capacity utilization? Both the state and the market are the means. The end is development.