• Alleges poor consultation on AfCFTA, fiscal indiscipline
• Nigeria’s renegotiation delaying ratification, says official
• Russia seeks more commitment to raise deals above $20b
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented that nepotism in
Nigeria is obstructing the fight against corruption.In what seemed
like reporting the country’s leadership to the world, the elder
statesman, before a gathering of investors at the ongoing yearly
meeting of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Moscow,
accused the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of fiscal
indiscipline and bias in the fight against corruption.
He described corruption and development as strange bed fellows,
warning that people in authority would remain deluded as long as
their definition of corruption is when money, goods and services
are involved.
“Nepotism is a form of corruption and condoning what is bad is a
height of corruption. Lack of fiscal discipline is corruption. So,
corruption and development cannot meet. You must eschew corruption
to make sure that you make significant progress.
“Fighting corruption is not a matter of do it today and tomorrow
you are absent. It must be consistently fought. There must not be
sacred cows, and it must be comprehensive and inclusive,” he
said.The Buhari administration has repeatedly come under criticism
for allegedly favouring a section of the country on appointments
and targeting the opposition in its campaign against graft.
The government’s alleged shoddy consultation was also blamed for
the delay in the ratification of the African Continental Free Trade
and Agreement (AfCFTA), acclaimed the largest free trade agreement
in the world. Obasanjo told investors that while there is no
confusion on what the deal is, private sector operators became
disillusioned over the government’s alleged inaction and poor
consultations after it had taken the lead in design and
execution.
He expressed hope that Nigeria would sign the deal before the
July 7 launch in Niamey.“Nigeria will not be absent at the launch
of the AfCFTA. But I see no reason why Nigeria can be present at
the launch when it has not signed the agreement. It is out of
place. Eritrea and even Niger and Benin who are our neighbours have
signed, and Nigeria is counting itself out.
“If you heard the statement of the permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Trade today, there is nothing more beautiful than that,
but he is not a policy maker, he is a policy executor.
“He will have to go home and tell the policymakers that he made
the right statement, so it’s now their turn for action. I hope that
when he gets home and says it’s time for right action, they will
follow through,” he said.
But Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary (Political and Economic
Affairs) at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, said the delay was not indicative of government’s doubt
on the initiative, but the consequence of ongoing renegotiations.He
explained that Nigeria wants to ensure that some protective steps
are put in place, lest the country becomes a dumping ground.
“With time, Nigeria is going to sign. But we have to do what
China did, even with the world trade agreement – they gave a
condition. And that is what we are going to do. You do not expect a
country like Nigeria to be given the same size of cake with a
country like The Gambia, even though we are all in Africa.
“You cannot just go ahead and enter into an agreement with a
neighbouring nation without looking at who is standing behind that
nation. How are you going to protect yourself?
“Though we need a free and fair deal, how also do we protect
ourselves to ensure that we do not just become a dumping ground?
These are some of the issues we are looking at, at the moment.
Absolutely, we are coming back to the table to say, “this is what
we want,” Aduda said.
Earlier, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs,
expressed his country’s willingness to contribute more to the
development of the African continent, disclosing that over $20
billion worth of investments was done in Africa in 2018.
“Russia is building a long-term relationship with Africa and has
become a shareholder in Afreximbank. To give an additional impetus
to all our cooperation, including commercial and economic, it was
decided to jointly organise the first Russia-Africa summit in
October 2019 in Sochi.
“We are waiting for African Heads of State and Government,
leaders of the African Union and other major sub-regional
organisations to key into our partnership and hope that Afreximbank
will contribute to the substantial content of the economic part of
the programme, which seems very solid,” he said.