Atiku has been saying Nigeria is broke and rather than people discredit his statement , they attack him.

You might not be a fan of Atiku (I am not either) but does what he said have credibility? The last time he said Nigeria was broke, Olusegun ‘no balls’ Aganga said Atiku had no idea what he was saying. (Atiku was the head of Nigeria’s economic Council . He single handedly recruited Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo and co. so he should know what the hell he is talking about!)

Why then does Nigeria  borrow billions of Dollars again? What happened to our reserves? (Why did we even have reserves when we do not have power or good roads?)

Remi Babalola first raised the alarm when he talked of NNPC but was promptly sacked.

My dear Nigerians do not let your hate of the messenger make you ignore the message.

The question is:

Is Nigeria broke? If yes, what happened to the money? If No, what happened to the money, why the hell don’t we have good roads and stable power?

God help Nigeria!… But we must help ourselves first.

15 thoughts on “Don’t Shoot the Messenger. Listen to Atiku

  1. Oo,
    Nigeria is not broke. Reserves are depleted and we might be borrowing but we are far from broke. The reserves still stand at 33billion dollars. We are borrowing $5.02 billion at a concessionary interest rate over several years. I can’t say that is a sign of progress or fiscal responsibility (especially given a lot of this money is really to replace recurrent expenditure funds that have gone to subsidize the over workings of the federal government and legislooters) but Atiku is stupidly crying the sky is falling because he does not understand economics.

    Besides, Atiku single handedly recruited Ngozi, Soludo and co?

    Man, I need to see evidence for that. Because I am pretty sure that they all thought he was an idiot by the end of their respective terms. He lacks a proper grasp of economics and is wont to do some really shady accounting in managing his own businesses.

    1. “The reserves still stand at 33billion dollars. ”

      But the Govt has not said that. It would be a straight forward defense.

      “Besides, Atiku single handedly recruited Ngozi, Soludo and co?”
      He was the head of the economic council. Add El Rufai to the list too.

      Remember he was virtualloy in charge of Nigeria while Obj was foreign affairs Minister.

  2. OO…..the man’s an armed robber….how does a career civil servant get the funds to build a world class university single handedly in Adamawa? In this case, I am prepared to place the messenger on a pole and shoot him!

    1. The message should be delivered by credible messengers like Okwonjo.

      You should read her comments. None of this nonsense “Nigeria is broke” rhetoric. It is why did the reserves go down so low before we had even started spending on anything (with the Jonathan government) and why are we not doing infrastructure projects.

      Atiku is just being political. We should ignore him and his political message if we are interested in discussing economics here

  3. The question I’d like to ask is ‘when did Nigeria really become broke?’ and why is Atiku just speaking up now? He would come across as more credible if he could prove that he is not speaking based on vested interests. On the other hand, I agree with Oo in that we need to look into the questions he has raised and demand for clear answers from the Federal Govt. I for one find it a bit funny that the President should go about announcing some absurd financial commitments on behalf of the Federal Govt at a time when we are borrowing heavily.

    The way things are going, we may just be worse than broke!

  4. I don’t think Aunty Dora understands economics. Besides, they have. It is public information.

    You should read Aganga’s response to the NA. Its very straightforward and he used Data from reputable sources.

    Again we are NOT broke. Too many people in this world just don’t understand economics.

    (I am a little surprised you are waiting for the govt to say anything though. The catch 22 is
    that people will immediately say he is lying)

    Also, Atiku was a moribund vice president. That’s what made him angry. I don’t know why people are revising history like this. Who does Atiku know near Soludo and these other people? If he hired them, why weren’t they on his side of the table during the Third Term tug of war. I mean ask El Rufai, he has always detested Atiku so where is all this revisionism coming from.

    I’m so confused.

    1. The catch 22 is that people will immediately say he is lying.

      So they should say nothing?

      “You should read Aganga’s response to the NA. Its very straightforward and he used Data from reputable sources. ”

      Data can be interpreted in several ways. he chose the one that favoured the NA. He is a coward.

      “Who does Atiku know near Soludo and these other people? If he hired them, why weren’t they on his side of the table during the Third Term tug of war.”

      He was the VP. He had access to these people. That he brought them including Ribadu has never been disputed. The reson they went with Obasanjo is best known to them

    2. I am not denying the fact that Aganga is a coward. But his interpretation of the data is correct and although he shies away from pointedly tell the legislooter the negative impact of their spending, he is still presenting them the data as it is at least. Also, like I said, I hope they address the issue Atiku is raising because its not a serious one. You should still read Aganga’s other response where he says Atiku does not understand economics. He does focus a lot on the reason they spent as much as they did (I won’t lie, I thought the spending provisions were reasonable if they actually get to their destination). I suspect he didn’t talk about the reserves as much because it really is just a lie that we are broke. Simple and Short.

      http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5646269-146/atiku_has_poor_knowledge_of_economy.csp

      Also as far as bringing on people goes. Everyone knows that one Atiku threatened to run against OBJ for President, he was shut out of governance. Is it eerily coincidental that it was after his first term that OBJ brought Iweala and co on.
      I remember he booted off Atiku once he got his second term and made Soludo lead the NEC. It was Soludo who recruited Iweala because they had worked together at the world bank.
      The funny thing is that I have inside information on how each of these people got hired and none of it involved Atiku which is why I am wondering where this whole sentiment is coming from.

    3. There is an Atiku Interview in last weeks Thisday and it is fairly accurate. Even though it is a bit biased towards him.

      Maybe Okonjo was not among but you see, After Atiku threatened to run (he says because he was threatened to be dropped. And he did not want to run ad president but Ekwueme’s deputy). Obj took charge of Atikus ‘structure’.

      That he assembled the economic team has never been in doubt.

      I hate to be defending Atiku but I always try to be Objective.

    4. I’m going to look for this interview. However, given Atiku’s penchant for lying, I won’t believe him that much.

      But I’m going to be looking out for evidence that he assembled the economic team. The key players though Okonjo, El Rufai and Soludo, it seems are OBJ’s acquisitions. So I’m wondering who he brought on board; is it Yakubu Taminu or Mansur?

      I love that you are being objective by the way. Its easier to have a conversation that way.

  5. We are not necessarily broke but the worries are that we are well on our way there and when we get there it won’t be pretty. External Reserves were about $60b mid 2008 and are now at about $40b which is really not bad considering that we had to really defend the naira during the financial crisis. It has actually been around $40b since the beginning of the year.

    The real “problem” is the excess crude account which went from about $20b to $500m faster than you can say jack robinson without any commensurate growth. “We are trying to invest in the power sector” but surprise surprise… there is nothing to show for it. Even more alarming is the fact that the FG seems to want to continue the spending trend by borrowing which given the same spending patterns will also have nothing to show for it. Are we broke? Yes but not because we have no money but because we are consistently spending more than we are earning.

    Why should we care? Well when we run out of places to borrow from we will have no other choice but to “trim’ the government which as anybody who watches tv can see is very very difficult. So its a case of hold yourself now or suffer later.

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