Nigeria’s economy at mercy of other countries, says Fashola

Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday painted a pathetic picture of Nigeria’s economy, saying all it takes to cripple this biggest economy in Africa was for countries from whom Nigeria buys oil to refuse to “sell to us, and we will be down.”

Fashola as a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of Women in Business (Wimbiz) conference at the Eko Hotels on Victoria Island, Lagos, spoke against the background of the country’s inability to refine crude oil for its domestic usage almost sixteen years into democracy, saying something was wrong with manner the economy is being managed by the Federal Government.

The governor noted that the nation’s power supply was going from bad to worse; more Nigerians are unemployed, while the country cannot refine its crude oil but depend wholly on importation.

“All it takes to cripple our economy by those countries from where we buy oil is to say they won’t sell to us any longer,” Fashola said, adding that the insecurity in the North East and the country generally needed to be addressed.

“We have seen a good example where the country was denied access from buying arms. This is the situation we are as regards importation of oil. In 2010 alone, we spent N2.5 trillion importing fuel into this country. Now, we have less money to import. If we can’t pay for our oil importation, we all know its implication for the country. In not too distant future, the fuel queue will return.

“The government is yet to give us power as promised, they are yet to give us fuel, we are yet to see the standard highways they promised. There are so many Nigerians living without electricity.

“Within their transformation period, thousands of people in the North East have been killed, thousands turned refugee in their father’s land, over 200 girls are still in captivity of insurgents, the North East is still under siege. With all these, their transformation ambassadors are telling Nigerians that all is well,” he said.

(BusinessDay)