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Since the appointment by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and confirmation by the Senate on June 3, 2009, of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) to succeed Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), concerned stakeholders and policy analysts have been writing and suggesting a lot things regarding what needs to be done to improve the services that the CBN provides by the new man at the helms of affairs of the apex bank. By the time this particular piece is published, many newspaper editorials and feature articles would have been added to the flood of ideas being churned out for the attention of the new CBN governor.
All the write-ups thus far, seems to place emphasis on what their authors consider to be the good things that can be done to improve the Nigerian financial/banking system in particular and invariably, the national spatial economy as a whole. A lot of areas have already been covered by these write-ups within the first week of the appointment, confirmation and assumption of office of Mallam Sanusi. This means that he has a lot in his hands to study and digest and at the same time; focus on the difficult and challenging job to be done.
I do not want to repeat what have already been said and/or suggested in the last couple of days. However, I would like to draw attention to some salient issue areas that often seem to be ignored or glossed over as inconsequential by policy analysts and public affairs commentators. I will duel on only one key issue area; national statistical data deficits. The selection of this issue area may sound mundane and/or strange to some people. But, all the good things that have so far being suggested and/or brought to the attention of new CBN governor in since his appointment can only be successfully addressed if and only if this issue area is properly contextualised, mainstreamed and accorded priority by Mallam Sanusi. Here are a couple of reasons for saying so.
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First, none of the statutory functions and mandates of the apex bank can be conducted and implemented optimally and efficiently without timely, accurate and reliable statistical data collected, stored, and processed and analyzed from across the national spatial economy. Put in another way, a complete, timely, accurate and reliable and robust national statistical database (not a databank as some Nigerian usually calls it) is a necessary and desirable condition for efficient public management of a national economy. Unfortunately however, Nigeria is worldly known for its notoriety in terms of national statistical data deficits among so many other deficits. As matter of fact, in the late 1960s, a book was published with an unpalatable title: Planning without Facts – Lessons in Resource Allocation from Nigeria’s Development, written by Wolfgang F. Stolper (Published in 1966 by Harvard University Press (Cambridge)) about Nigeria dysfunctional economic planning scenario to explain why Nigeria has been experiencing stunted economic growth and development since independence in 1960.
Another example of this malady is the fact that for over forty years until 2006, successive Nigerian governments were unable to say with exact certainty and precision what’s Nigeria’s overall total foreign and local debt stocks. At all times in those years, multiple figures were being generated, peddled and kept by the different parties and/or agencies regarding Nigeria’s overall total foreign and local debt stocks for that matter. For example, the CBN always had different set of national debts figures that differ in terms of completeness, accuracy and reliability from those generated and kept by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of Federation, Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, National Planning Commission, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other numerous national statistical collection and collation offices/agencies and research centres/institutions.
All the multiple sets of debts figures in custody of our national institutions also remarkably differ from those generated and kept by both the London and Paris Clubs of creditor nations respectively. The debts figures also differ from those kept by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amongst others. Therefore, these chaotic situations contributed and continue to contribute to the underdevelopment, corruption and other malfeasances the nation has been passing through since independence to date.
Thus, the importance of timely, complete, accurate and reliable data regarding all aspects of economic, social and physical/natural resources cannot be overemphasized and/or compromised by any country. Unfortunately, the Nigerian economy has been operating on the basis of faulty statistical data and information which are largely estimates and/or guesstimates to say the least since independence. Sadly, not much serious efforts have been put in place to address and correct this malady since then.
