Against the backdrop of slowing growth and a looming recession in Africa’s largest economy, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, former Nigerian President, has stated that he worked to diversify the country’s economy by prioritising agriculture and the real sector.
“On the issue of diversifying the economy, we did very well within the five years that I was in office. That was when agriculture got to the peak, you can ask anybody. For you to diversify, it is the real sector and agriculture. We had the agriculture transformation agenda which was the best since the history of the country,” Jonathan, 58, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s offices in London on Monday.
Nigeria has been battered by falls in the price of oil, which accounted for two-thirds of government revenue and 90 percent of export earnings in 2014.
Growth was negative 0.36 percent in the first quarter for the first time since 2004 and a recession is imminent, the central bank said at the end of its last monetary policy meeting.
“We were praised by everybody globally which is why my Minister for Agriculture is now the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), because of what he did in agriculture. We also encouraged the real sector – the manufacturers. Within my period, Nigeria was a gross importer of cement but before I left, Nigeria became a gross exporter of cement. So if somebody said we were never diversified, that is not true. We encouraged manufacturing industrialisation,” Jonathan said.
President Muhammadu Buhari succeeded Jonathan, 58, in May 2015.
The new President Buhari has been criticised by investors for exacerbating the economic crises from falling oil prices by holding on to an unsustainable dollar peg for the local currency.
“The economy of Nigeria depends on oil, anytime there is a drop, it affects the economy. Though, oil contributes just about 15 percent of GDP in terms of government revenue, the oil sector contributes about 80 percent. So at any time the oil prices come down, it is a problem and especially now given the production is coming down with activities within the Niger Delta region. But this is not the first time government is experiencing a drop in oil prices; even before I left, oil prices started coming down,” Jonathan said.
A militant group known as Niger Delta Avengers has claimed attacks on facilities belonging to companies including Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Agip Oil Co., causing Nigeria’s output to drop to an almost 30-year low of about 1.4 million barrels per day.
The violence has deepened the crisis facing Africa’s largest economy, which is already reeling from a slump in crude prices.
Jonathan expressed his belief that dialogue was the best route to end the conflict and stop militant attacks on oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta.
“Definitely, it will be resolved,” Jonathan said. “Yes, government can always overrun restive movements and so on, but the Niger delta is too delicate. The level of damage will be too much for the government to bear. We used dialogue.”
Jonathan was vice-president when Nigeria’s government offered an amnesty and monthly stipends to militants, to end years of instability, which had cut oil output. In February, Jonathan’s successor Muhammadu Buhari reduced the stipends and cancelled security contracts with former military leaders.
The former President also denied allegations that his administration left an empty treasury, noting the country’s economy was robust, however, there was the tendency to “over-politicise things” and make them appear worse than they were.
According to Jonathan, the excess crude account was not really a reserve fund for a rainy day, “But when I was there, we decided to make a special fund- what we called the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), so that it will not be easy for you to take from it.
“What happened was, at anytime the earnings dropped, the governors would insist that there was no place in our law that said the Federal Government should keep excess funds. So they always insisted that a part of it should be shared. It is not as if the federal government spent the money. Just like when this administration came and there was so much pressure from the governors, some funds were released,” Jonathan affirmed.
According to him, corruption was mostly about the leaders’ perception, pointing out that since the beginning of the country till present, there has always been corruption.
“Of course I did well to curtail corruption. My approach to corruption was “don’t make money available for anybody to touch. Just like in the area of Fertiliser subsidies, we made sure the whole area was cleaned up. I wanted to do the same thing in the oil industry, but the very people that have been accusing us of corruption are the very people who forced it to fail. It is unfortunate,” said Jonathan.
On whether he was worried that the present government will investigate him, Jonathan noted that there are ongoing investigations and would not want to make any comments until they were concluded.
FRANK ELEANYA & ISAAC ANYAOGU
