Over the last 24 hours, the senate has begun screening the ministerial nominees submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari and although portfolios have not been allocated, there is a lot of interest about who will get the economic portfolios. So fat, nobody has been named as finance or trade and industry ministers but Professor Osinbajo said he will have overall responsibility for the sector.
In the last government, finance minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the coordinating minister for the economy and seen as the unofficial prime minister. Speaking at the opening of the 21st Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja yesterday, Professor Osinbajo, who is the chairman of the National Economic Council, said he will take on the role that will involve tackling corruption.
Professor Osinbajo added: “We are at a time of monumental challenges and tough choices but also a time of incredible opportunities for achieving competitiveness, inclusive growth and sustainability. We are called upon to clean up the mess and rebuild the institutions that corruption had ravaged over the years.
“We are compelled to redress the paradox of high growth figures and widening inequality, rising unemployment and poverty. It is evident that any economic model that leaves nearly half of the citizenry behind requires re-thinking, which is why our economic model would involve substantial social investments over the next three years."
Speaking at the summit titled Tough Choices: Achieving Competitiveness, Inclusive Growth and Sustainability, the vice-president said the current administration would be built on an economic model which would involve substantial social investment over the next three years. He added that the Buhari administration has to make tough choices in exchange control restrictions, altering the absurd recurrent to capital expenditure ratio, reducing the deficit and reducing the overall size of governance.
In addition, the vice-president added that with programmes such as the conditional cash transfer and renewed support for small scale businesses, government would generate employment and address poverty. He expressed the hope that these initiatives would greatly reduce social tension and criminality across the country.
Professor Osinbajo explaining that social investment had become imperative if government must impact the lives of the people as against what happened in the past where economic growth figures did not reflect on the lives of the vast majority of citizens. While calling for a national reorientation, he said the culture of impunity would have to be contained as well as ensuring that corrupt persons paid a price.
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