Former Finance Minister: Ngozi Okonjo Iweala Speaks:

I still find it funny that most people
don't know why Nigeria economy
went into recession, they love the
incompetent lies about the past government ruining
everything. It's also myopic to think
that if Jonathan were to still be in
power, we would be worse off.
The truth about Nigeria's recession
is this; it was caused by the
president's unguided rhetoric and
uncultured body language.
Firstly, there is nothing we are
buying today that we weren't buying
5 years ago, therefore it's not our
purchase that put pressure on Naira
but withdrawal of funds by foreign
investors.
After the election, the president
created instability with his unguided
statements about how everyone is
corrupt and how everyone is going to
jail. The instability made foreign
investors to liquidate their
investment and change their money
to dollars.
In the process of trying to
flee, they were willing to buy dollars
at any price, which lead to high
exchange dollar rate.
Even though some of them were not
ready to run away, but want their
money in dollars to save their
investments from devaluation, the
president gave a bad signal by
banning deposit of foreign currency
into dormiciliary accounts. That was
enough for free market believers to
see the draconian handwriting on
the wall, that was the beginning of
dollar rush.
To make matters worse, the
president came up with another
outrageous policy of rationing dollar
to certain sectors and blocking many
sectors out. That was the nail in the
coffin which facilitated the
emergence of free FALL.
In the end, foreign investors took
over $80B out of the economy within
a short period and everything went
down to free fall.
To those who believe it will be worse
if Jonathan is still there, you are all
wrong. Policy continuity and political
stability will not let billions of
dollars leave our shores within such
tiny time frame. Even though the
government might have income
shortage, the private sector will
weather the storm by their
confidence in the market.
The fear of the unknown created by
PMB is responsible for the economic
downturn not low oil price. Interest
rate in America is currently at 0.5%
while it is 12% in Nigeria. JP Morgan
Chase will not mind borrowing $50
billion from Feds at 0.5 and put in
Nigeria for return of %2000 profit.
Citi bank will do the same, likewise
US Bank Corp. Chase gave Buhari
warning about the repercussions of
his fixing policy before they pulled
out, but his illiterate cyber warriors
and misseducated e-soldiers said
JPMORGAN can go to hell, they no
longer believe in economic metrics
since their messiah is in charge.
Funny enough they are all suffering
today because of the bad policy,
but they find relief by blaming it on
past administration and Gucci
appetite of average Nigerians.
For your information, if your
president "continues" with his
unguided rhetoric, Naira will go
down to N1000/1 $. But we thank
God, he is no longer talking.

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