Former vice-president and leading presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, has blamed the dwindling revenue profile of government on the non-diversification of the nation’s economy.
Speaking with representatives of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in Abuja, the former vice-president, expressed regrets that beside the present administration’s inability to diversify and manage the economy, lack of fiscal discipline in surplus years was also responsible for the present austerity measures.
The APC presidential hopeful further noted that the period of boom and austerity occur in circles in capitalist economies but to minimize the impact and ensure that the citizens did not suffer during the drought years depended on what the leadership did with the years of plenty.
Atiku recalled that the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, which he served as vice-president created the Sovereign Wealth Fund in order to have a fall-back position for the nation’s economy.
He said the idea behind the fund was to have a pool where excess resources could be pooled to take care of the years of drought.
Atiku revealed that it was also this problem and the need to streamline the country’s alarming debt profile when he was in power with former President Obasanjo that compelled him to get the World Bank to assign then Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to join his economic team in the Presidency to locate and collate the country’s actual debt for liquidation.
He said the current minister of finance worked in his
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Atiku blames dwindling revenue on mono-cultural economy |
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