Professor Soludo is a man I have huge respect for. It's always difficult for me to puncture anything he says, because he has a sound mind and I am proud we have a man like that in Nigeria. However, on his recent comment that Buhari made the economy worse than he met it, I really wish he was specific on what Buhari did wrongly and what Buhari should have done differently. unfortunately, he didn't give specific details, data and facts to substantiate his stance. Non the less, my respect for him remains intact, even though I strongly differ from him on this occasion. Not because I love Buhari, but because facts and data are not in his favor this time around and I like to always be on the side of facts not sentiments.
I recall that as at 2004, when Professor Soludo became the governor of the CBN, the Naira was exchanging N147/$, and in 2009, when he was leaving office, the Naira had appreciated and was exchanging for N117/$. Which means, the Naira grew by N30 within his five year tenure as the governor of the apex bank.
The reason is simple; When OBJ came on board in 1999, Nigeria's foreign reserves stood at $3.8 billion dollars, and FDI was almost nonexistent. In the same 1999, OBJ rolled up his sleeves and grew our foreign reserves to $5.6 billion and then FDI began to flow into the country. As a matter of fact, the country attracted FDI to the tune of $1 billion in the same 1999. From year 2000 to 2007 when OBJ left office, the foreign reserves had grown to $52.6 billion and also attracted FDI to the tune of $6.0 billion. In 2008, Yaradua increased the foreign reserves to $54.1 billion and FDI increased to over $8 billion. This means that between 1999 and 2008, we attracted FDI because our foreign reserves (which is our Asset base) was increasing and that gave the foreign investors the confidence to bring in their funds to trade in Nigeria. These things are well known to Professor Soludo, because he was once a chief economic adviser to Obasanjo and also a CBN governor, so he was a key member of the team that worked tirelessly to defend the Naira by building up our asset base.
FAST FORWARD TO 2010:
When GEJ became president, rather than continue from where OBJ and YARADUA stopped, he began to deplete the foreign reserves and also began to increase the country's liabilities by borrowing. Mind you, he wasn't borrowing to build infrastructures, rather he was borrowing for recurrent expenditures. He (GEJ) had everything going for him. Even crude price rose to average of $107/barrel throughout his regime, which means the country made so much revenue, but the whole monies were wasted and the foreign reserves his predecessors saved up were also depleted. The level of sleaze that took place in that administration can only be imagined.
As at 2012, FDIs began to reduce and most of them began to pull out their funds from our economy. As at 2015 when GEJ was leaving office, the FDI had dropped to $3 billion. The question you should ask yourself is, if GEJ did managed our economy well, how come the FDIs were pulling out right under his nose? The answer is simple, the FDIs were smart enough to understand what most Nigerians have refused to understand til date. Our balance sheet was not good enough to give them confident to keep investing here.
While I agree that the buck stops on Buhari's desk now, because he was elected to restore the lost pride of the country, but things doesn't seem to be looking good physically at the moment. I still maintain that it's unfair to blame him for this present economic woes in the country without taking time to review where we are coming from.
A country that was selling crude for as much as $120/barrel and were producing over 2.5 million barrels/day and didn't save one kobo from all the income. How can they suddenly blame a regime that took the country when crude price crashed to as low as $32/ barrel and production cut down to as low as 900,000/day at some point, because of the activities of the Niger-Delta Avengers. I am happy that the price of crude is now appreciating and relative peace is being restored to the Niger-Delta region and the Northeast too. We need to encourage PMB and his team to begin to diversify our economy, so as to save the country from future economic danger.
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Op just like you, Soludo is a man i have deep respect for. Just as his people takes Fayose as their role model, i must confess i considers him my role models on matters of intelligence.

However Observing his activities and opinions lately, like visiting Kanu and demanding for his unconditional release and his claim of Buhari making the economy worse begins to give me another view of him.

I suspect that Mr Chuckwuma is a up to something. His acts is showing a man that is desperate to gain the attention and approval of his people hence he has to begin singing the song they know best to dance, speak the language they understand, which is attacking anything Buhari.

Maybe someone will need to list out the things Buhari has done, is doing and his other efforts in building the economy so as to educate Soludo and other Igbo critics.

ipobbigot7:
Op just like you, Soludo is man i have deep respect for. Just as his people takes Fayose as their role model, i must confess i considers him my role models on matters of intelligence.

Observing his activities and opinions lately like visiting Kanu and demanding for his unconditional release and his claim of Buhari making the economy worse begins to give me another view of him.

I suspect that Mr Chuckwuma is a up to something. His acts is showing a man that is desperate to get the attention and approval of his people hence he has to begin singing the song they know to dance, speak the language they understand, which is attacking anything Buhari.

Maybe someone will need to list out the things Buhari has done, is doing and his other efforts in building the economy so as to educate and other Igbo critics.

I guess Obasanjo's encouragement that we have a President from South East is making him prepare to try his luck.

Even Soludo said before the election that the economy was already messed up and no matter who wins, there is a very crazy day ahead.

I appreciate your piece on the state of the economy for the past 17 years. I wouldn't say professor Soludo is completely wrong in his statement because the economy could have done better if Buhari had listened to IMF and World Bank as at when due. These are infrastructures that knew our the world economy is going and they certainly know what Nigeria has been doing for the last 10 years. Moreover his economic plans never included a rescue mission of the economy, all he wanted to do first was recover all the stolen monies which is taking longer than he proposed. Sanusi Lamido, the governor of the apex bank after Soludo also faulted Buhari's economic plans. The way I see it these two men can't be completely wrong on this. They might have their faults but I bet you they're on point when talking money and economy.

@op seguntijan, try arranging your right up. It will make it easier to read. I think it will also be fair to include how the foreign reserve stood when burahi took over, how the level of reserve affected the economy and the scarcity of the dollars

ipobbigot7:
Op just like you, Soludo is a man i have deep respect for. Just as his people takes Fayose as their role model, i must confess i considers him my role models on matters of intelligence.

However Observing his activities and opinions lately, like visiting Kanu and demanding for his unconditional release and his claim of Buhari making the economy worse begins to give me another view of him.

I suspect that Mr Chuckwuma is a up to something. His acts is showing a man that is desperate to gain the attention and approval of his people hence he has to begin singing the song they know best to dance, speak the language they understand, which is attacking anything Buhari.

Maybe someone will need to list out the things Buhari has done, is doing and his other efforts in building the economy so as to educate Soludo and other Igbo critics.

And what has Buhari done since he took over power? Has the citizens smell talkless of seeing it?

If you want to be considered an Igbo patriotic Nigerian, always speak against the interest of Ini'Igbo. But the moment you turn around and speak in their interest, you become a tribal lord. Charles Soludo is a perfect example.
Only the Igbo tribe is allowed to speak against their tribe, to be accepted as a Nigerian. Going through history, the Awolowos, the Ahmadu Bellos and the likes that were ethnic champions, base on their past speeches are today considered great Nigerians . Hypocrites.