Practical challenges for Economic Advisory Council – TheNigerialawyer

Eze Onyekpere

The news of the dissolution of the Economic Management Team
chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo alongside the empanelling
of the Economic Advisory Council by President Muhammadu Buhari was
one of the key issues in the economy in the outgone week. There
have been various opinions and issues made out of this development.
Many see it as positive and even started the development of an
agenda for the new team. Others have adopted a wait-and-see
attitude. But what are the key issues and challenges for the new
team?.

It is imperative to acknowledge that the economy has been
wobbling and fumbling from one avoidable headwind to another since
the advent of the Buhari administration in 2015. Indeed, it may
even be said that the economy appears rudderless, or at best, not
to have capable managers as it keeps drifting like flotsam and
jetsam in the high waves of the ocean. The fiscal policies failed
to complement monetary policies while indicators like high
inflation, unemployment, low productivity, poor growth of gross
domestic product, etc. have been the norm. Security measures and
government’s handling of security negated the drive for economic
growth as agriculture suffered greatly from the herdsmen-farmers’
crisis. Also, investor confidence has been at an all-time low.

The dissolved Economic Management Team seemed at a loss as to
what to do to gain a proper handle on the economy. But it was
composed of the hands-on managers of the economy in fiscal and
monetary policies and other managers of the economy. They were
ministers, advisers and others who had mandates backed by the
constitution, statutes and by the fact that they were occupants of
positions charged with the management of specific aspects of the
economy.

Now, the new Economic Advisory Council is purely an advisory
team which reports directly to the President and is composed of
strangers to economic governance in the sense that beyond being
members of the team, they hold no official positions as managers of
either fiscal, monetary, trade, industrial, labour, etc. policy.
Being an advisory team, the outcome of their sittings is not
binding and is subject to being accepted or rejected by the
President whom they advise. The truth is that it takes a good dose
of knowledge for anyone including the President to be discerning to
understand the advice that will lift the economy out of the woods.
This knowledge and discernment will also depend on the capacity of
the kitchen cabinet, the presidential inner caucus who will review
the advice for the President before accepting or rejecting the
same.

The challenge flowing from the above is not in the calibre of
men who are members of the advisory team as they are eminently
qualified Nigerians with diverse experiences; the issue is about
the capacity of the person advised to absorb the advice. The
follow-up challenge is in the transmission mechanism that will see
the advice of the team through, from the President’s table to the
leadership of implementing agencies. How will this happen,
especially for agencies that are autonomous and have been so
granted autonomy by law? For instance, how will the team’s advice
influence monetary policy considering that the Central Bank of
Nigeria is independent and autonomous by its enabling law and the
autonomy of Central Banks is recognised worldwide as a fit and good
practice?

One would have expected that if a team that includes the Vice
President, the CBN governor, the Ministers of Trade, Finance,
Budget and National Planning, etc. is not working or delivering the
expected returns, the logical next step would not have been to
dissolve the team. Dissolving the team is like a vote of no
confidence in the membership of the team. But the flip side is that
members of the team still retained their official and more powerful
positions as ministers and key political appointees in charge of
strategic economic sectors. The logical follow-up would have been
to strengthen the team with alternative voices and visions which
the membership of the new Economic Advisory Council would have
brought on board. Thus, the Economic Management Team would have
been composed of key office holders and reputable economists like
the members of the new team. This would have enriched Nigeria with
a scenario where for instance, the Godwin Emefiele-led CBN’s
policies would have had the benefit of a second opinion at the EMT
championed by other economists including a Chukwuma Soludo who is a
former CBN governor. This second opinion would not have been coming
from “total outsiders” deliberating at a forum that the CBN
governor is not a member. But it would have come in a committee
where he participates and gets the opportunity to make first hand
submissions.

The foregoing raises the critical question; if the President
found the Vice President and key ministers and appointees, whom he
placed in charge of the economy, incapable of managing the economy
or being members of an Economic Management Team, why did he appoint
them into those positions in the first instance? Should he not
remove them from office where he is so constitutionally empowered?
Is the new team a parallel governmental economic management team?
Assuming the occupants of key offices decide to frustrate the
implementation of the advice of the new team even if transmitted by
the President to them, would the President relieve the appointees
of their positions? Occupants of high office may frustrate proposed
changes while at the same time swearing to the President and
convincing him to believe that they are implementing the same.
Frustrating the recommendations from the committee may be a way to
convince the President that the recommendations are not practicable
and cannot work to produce the results envisaged by the new
team.

It is the submission of this discourse that improving the
Nigerian economy must involve the decisions and contributions of
the occupants of the exalted offices of members of the former
Economic Management Team. They ought to be part of any economic
management or advisory team to ensure that sound policies and
advice are fully implemented. The advice of the new team stands a
chance of being sabotaged by members of the old team who occupy
very important implementation positions.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!