President Muhammdu Buhari has revealed his
greatest shock since assuming power on May 29, 2015.
He said he could not believe when he was informed that Nigeria
had over the years squandered all its precious foreign exchange on the
importation of food items and other frivolous items, including tooth picks.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday to editors and newspaper executives
in an interview to mark the administration’s first year in office, Buhari said
last year, when oil prices fell to $40 per barrel, he summoned Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] Godwin Emefiele and asked to see what it was that
Nigerians were buying with foreign exchange.
He said, “Up to 2013, we were earning on average over $100 per
barrel from oil but by fabulous coincidence, it went down to about $30 per
barrel when we came in. There was no money to import food. For me, it was the
biggest shock.
“Nigeria became an oil economy and we left agriculture and solid
minerals and everyone went to the city to look for oil money.”
On his opposition with regards to naira devaluation, he said
when he was military Head of State in 1984-85, World Bank and International
Monetary Fund [IMF] experts advised him to devalue the naira and remove subsidy
on petrol and flour. He said even though they pressed him hard, he did neither
of the two.
He said this was because countries that benefitted from currency
devaluation were developed countries that produced more products after
devaluation and were able to export more because their goods became more
competitive.
Buhari further recalled: “When I was removed [as military Head
of State] in 1985, the dollar was one naira fifty kobo. Now naira is 350 to the
dollar. Tell me the benefits we derived from that? How many factories were
built in those years? Economists are not able to explain this to me. I am still
waiting for economists to tell me why we should continue to devalue the naira.
However, I don’t rule the country alone, so we must accommodate the
economists.”
Buhari disclosed that he believes in privatisation of state
owned firms, as “It is much more efficient.”
He recalled that as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum Resources
in General Obasanjo’s military regime in the 1970s, he signed contracts to
build Warri and Kaduna refineries and to expand Port Harcourt refinery as well
as build the depots and pipelines.
He said, “Should we sell them as scrap? We cannot spend so much
of our national resources to develop infrastructure and then sell them a scrap.
We must first take into consideration our state of development. We must repair
them first so we can negotiate with the buyers from a position of strength.”
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