A former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has faulted the federal government’s economic policies, saying the nation is being run on voodoo economic policies. Speaking in Lagos at the formal launch and presentation of a book he co-authored with a former consul-general of the Embassy of the United States of America to the country, Mr. Brian Browne, he called on the government at the centre to rework its economic architecture to serve the people better.The book entitled ‘Financialism: Water out of an Empty Well’, attracted the attendance of eminent Nigerians from all walks of life, particularly, state functionaries elected on the platform of various opposition parties.
Tinubu told dignitaries that graced the book launch that the country must do away with the policy of saving money abroad at low interest rates of about two percent and borrowing from multinational bodies at 16 percent, while the bulk of the people who ought to have benefited from such resources wallow in squalor and want.
He argued that such monies belonging to the country abroad should be put to productive use that would ensure that the vast majority of the people currently wallowing in the labour market are engaged for wealth creation.
The current trend, he argued, if left unchecked, is capable of choking the real sector, just as it will in turn lead to the situation that would breed wide gap of inequality among the people of the country, a situation capable of causing social unrest in the country, the nature of which the government might be incapable of managing.
According to him, the book is an honest warning against the impending dangers of the encroaching financialism, saying it identifies a few safety exits from the burning building.
In his opening address, the chairman of the occasion and former finance minister, Prof. Kalu Idika Kalu, lamented the failure of successive administrations to leverage on the groundwork of investment laid by the founding fathers in the real sector.
He said, “We are filled with slogans, copied lifestyles and values, thinking it will be a substitute for real hard thinking, sacrifice and investment,” he said.
Present at the event were Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) and four other opposition governors from the north who were represented. Also in attendance were Aliko Dangote, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.
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