Nigeria is not ready for the Eco currency yet – Prince Barr. Anthony Olatujoye
– Steve Ovirih.
Barrister Anthony Olatujoye, a legal luminary and former Director of Legal services, Central Bank of Nigeria has expressed his support for the economic development agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. The Erinje born royal prince in an exclusive chat with the press noted that the economy has improved since Buhari came on board as the President. ” When President Buhari came in as the President of Nigeria, the challenge he met on ground was the issue of economic recession; he struggled to combat it and he actually managed the economic recession of that era very well and Nigeria came out of the melt down stronger and better,” Olatujoye said.
He maintained that the economy is improving only that Nigerians need to exercise more patience for them to feel its positive impact.
Buttressing his standpoint on the nation’s improving economy, Olatujoye pointed to the progress the Federal Government has recorded in the Agric sector, the manufacturing sector and the all round positive outlook in the industrial sector of the nation’s economy, maintaining that with the steady growth ratio recorded so far there is hope for Nigeria. ” Look at rail transportation for instance, we have moved from the era of locomotive rail transportation system to a modern rail system, the monorail. The government is providing wherewithal to make direct foreign investors look in ward and develop interest in doing business in Nigeria. Of course, no doubt every sector is yearning for development,” Prince Barr. Olatujoye stressed.
Speaking about the seeming disconnect between the masses and the economic policy thrust of government, Barr. Olatujoye stressed that it will take a while before the masses can begin to enjoy the perks of economic development. He said majority of the people complaining about hardship in the polity, with due respect, are indolent and are not in the least hard-working. He said when Buhari complained that we have lazy youths, they protested but are our youths not lazy? He noted that the consequences of indolence among our youths are the easy way out they have continued to seek to get quick wealth, noting that internet fee fraud, kidnapping for ransom , kidnapping for ritual purposes, armed banditry, robbery are the results of the failure of our youths to be hardworking and to be able to think out of the box. Pontificating further, Barr Olatujoye said, ” as a youth, I worked hard before gainning admission to the university and with my £ 16. 10 salary per month as a clerk before going to the university, I was able to pay my tuition and take care of myself in my first academic session in the university,though my father who was the Oloja of our village frowned at the idea of my paying for myself in my first year but I did and it was out of my legitimate sweat.”
When asked that the soaring prices of goods could be an indication of hardship in the economy, Barr. Olatujoye said imported goods which prices have soared is a call to us to start growing our own variety of those goods in Nigeria. ” Must we eat foreign rice?” He asked. ” If foreign rice is expensive let’s grow our Nigerian brand of rice! We have cassava and other Staples , let’s grow them in large capacity and with this, we will crash the price of these foreign commodity.” He advised that rather than complaining, the masses should find something economically productive doing.
Barr. Olatujoye however frowned at the convocation of an Economic team different from the one under the supervision of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, noting that Prof Osinbajo is not just a professor of Law but a cerebral and erudite administrator, whose in-depth knowledge of Law and Economy cannot be overemphasized. He said government could have expanded the Osinbajo led economic advisory council and find a place in the council for those in the newly convoke Economic team. He said government should avoid the duplication of roles as it concerns economic think thank and egg heads of the country.
In the same vein, Barr. Olatujoye noted that the replacement of southern political appointees with those of the northern extraction should not become a recurring indices in the polity as this could make political appointment by the Buhari administration to be skewed in favor of the north. He however said same thing cannot be said of the case of the Chairman of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) , noting that in the case of AMCON there was an extant law which demands that a CBN Deputy Governor will take over the helms of affairs of the government agency and what government simply did was to activate the extant law at the expiration of the tenure of the immediate past chairman of the agency who happened to be a South West person from Lagos State, Barr. Muiz Banire ( SAN).
While commenting about the Ecowas effort at using the same currency, the former Director of Legal services at the CBN frowned at the idea for Nigeria saying Nigeria is not ready for Eco yet. “When I was in CBN , I was a member of the committee that attended meeting outside the country in Ghana , Sierra Leone and others on the Eco currency matter.” Olatujoye said restrain must be exercised by the country on the Ecowas same currency issue. ” There is the need for Nigeria not to rush the adoption of the Eco single currency due to failure of almost all member countries to meet the convergence of criteria- single digits inflation rate, stable exchange rate, external reserves that can take care of three months imports and many more. More fundamentally, the consequences of tying the Eco to the Euro as the Franco fone West African countries are doing.
Olatujoye maintained that we should not rush into the Eco currency league without carefully considering the likely consequences off tying our currency to the Euro with French Central Bank as the wharehouse , saying it is another way of re colonising Nigeria by the French government. Sounding a note of warning on this issue, the legal luminary noted, ” Nigexit may not be as easy as Brexit in the future so, Nigeria needs to thread cautiously on Eco.”
While commenting about the Ecowas effort at using thesame currency , the former Director of Legal services at the CBN frowned at the idea for Nigeria , saying Nigeria is not ready for Eco yet. ” When I was in CBN , I was a member of the committee that attended meeting outside the country in Ghana, Sierra Leone and others on the Ecowas currency’s matter. For Nigeria to join the Eco currency train there is a convergence of criteria that must be met and if these criteria are not met, it is simply impossible to switch over to Eco as our currency.” He maintained that as regards the issue of Eco, Nigerian government should exercise patience so that the polity is not plunged into inflation.
Olatujoye however described President Muhammadu Buhari as one of the finest Democrat Nigeria has ever produced. He was reacting to the Punch Editorial which has resolved to bring bag the President’s military rank of Major General and to describe his administration as a regime. Barr. Olatujoye said it was quite unconstitutional to describe a democratically elected government as a regime, stressing that the newspaper’s gesture is uncalled for. He said if Buhari were to be an undemocratic element, the outfit that said that would have been made to feel the heat from government, stressing that the Democratic credentials of President Buhari is not in doubt. ” If Punch says Buhari is undemocratic, what will it say of Prof Ayade, the Governor of Cross river who had put Agba Jalingo behind bars all this while?”
Prince Olatujoye in his reaction to the anti social media Bill said the only thing that needed to be done is for the section on the death penalty to be expunged. He said free speech and the liberty of the social media should not be taken for granted and should not be an avenue to abuse statecraft. On the incarceration of Mr Omoyele Sowore, Barr . Olatujoye said government should not have extended his stay. He however condemned the convener off #Revolution now # for making statements that actually , ordinarily would make any government put him behind bars. He said not even in America would a citizen say he will remove the President and make FBI not to exist that the US government will not take prompt action. He said our people should be civic in their use of free speech and the social media so that we don’t spread rumour that can cause conflagration . ” Look at the guy that planted the fake news of President Buhari’s marriage to his minister. You know the embarrassment that the fake news caused the Presidency, the Federal Government and even all Nigerians. To tell you how toxic an abusive social media use can be,” Olatujoye stressed.
Prince Barrister Anthony Olaniyi Olatujoye agreed that the Okitipupa division has experienced human capacity development as a whole lot of good hands in the different field of human endeavour have evolved from Okitipupa, nay Ikale Land. He said the division can boast of Professors , cerebral academics, Engineers and captains of industry. He however lamented the fact that Okitipupa division has suffered an obvious lack of infrastructural development , noting that there has not been any index mark of development in the area lately.
Asked about the way forward, the community stakeholder said, ” we will continue to appeal to government to ensure development is attracted to the division because the place up till now lacks basic amenities such as light and pipe borne water.”
