‘2016 was our annus horribilis’
Our venerable Chairman, Chief Phillip Asiodu; Right Honourable Speaker of House of Representatives and our Special Guest of Honour; panel of speakers, who I will introduce with a little more detail later; distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
In case some of you may notice some similarity between the theme of last year’s Daily Trust Dialogue and the present one. In 2016 the Buhari government was fairly new and we invited Vice President Osinbajo to be our special guest. This troubled country had just been given another chance to renew itself, some fifty years after the coups and civil war of the 1960’s.
So we asked the question, is Nigeria rising or sinking? To answer it, as usual, we had a three member panel of considerable diversity. There was Dr Mairo Mandara, a health care provider and development worker, now country head of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation; then General Martin Luther Agwai, a four star general, who has seen destruction and reconstruction in many parts of the world; and Professor Charles Soludo, former governor of our Central Bank.
Soludo, in particular, was not impressed with the first steps, of the new government. On the 2016 budget, which was at that point before Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his colleagues, the former economic adviser said he disagreed with those who said it was expansionary. The first Buhari budget, he said, was “minuscule” and “a failed opportunity to set new goals, post-oil”. To the hearing of Vice President Osinbajo who took notes.
Sounding like a prophet and an economist rolled into one, Soludo added, “My own hypothesis is that if we continue along that path, the economy will be underperforming by at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). That is a dangerous route to go. We can do something more audacious and get the economy back on track.”
To provide some continuity, today we are glad to have the Minister of Finance who will be able to say, what bold steps have been taken since last year’s budget to reboot the economy. From a layman’s point of view, 2016, could qualify as one of the worst years in living memory, our very own annus horribilis. But hopefully the worst is over and the World Bank forecast that the economy will grow by a little below one percent in 2017, will ease the hardship we all feel.
With the economy still in the doldrums, we decided it should still be the focus, of the 14th Daily Trust Dialogue. The question is, is the light some see, at the end of the tunnel, a new dawn, or the glare, of one of those, Chinese funded trains?
We chose Chief Phillip Asiodu as chair, because he was there when the times were good and God has preserved his life, to witness these lean times. To say he has been around is a serious understatement. He did his Masters degree in philosophy at Oxford University in 1956, the very year, I was born. Since then, he has risen to the very apex of the Civil Service, as one of those fabled super permanent secretaries; has thrived as a businessman and politicians, and offered his services to the nation as economic adviser and minister. Still concerned about the future of the country into his 80’s, he is currently, the chairman of the Nigeria Conservation Society. I should add that we offered, but Chief Asiodu declined, any logistic help to attend this event.
On behalf of my fellow directors, struggling to keep the company afloat despite the recession, I like to say how grateful we are to Chief Asiodu for his generosity and mentorship.
As usual we thought long and hard before settling on our three man panel of speakers. Like our chairman, they are very busy people, but all three are here on their own steam, thank you very much. I said three Speakers, because until yesterday we expected Aliko Dangote or someone senior from Dangote Group to be in here. Like Ibru group in 70’s and 80’s with the memorable slogan “Ibru mean business,” today you can say same about Dangote, so we tried hard to get him on the panel.
If Aliko Dangote, is entrepreneurship writ large, in Chief Atedo Peterside is that rare combination of professionalism and enterprise. He founded and was chief executive officer of IBTC (later Stanbic IBTC Bank) at age 33 in 1989 and is still chair of the holding company, as well as director of The Standard Bank of South Africa and the Standard Bank Group Limited. He sits on the board of many many private companies, but also served on the National Council of Privatisation (NCP) and the National Economic Management Team between 2011-2015.
Then we have the one top official, in best position to tell us what our government is trying to do about the economy. Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, was born and educated in the U.K., so her cockney accent is for real. She is a chartered accountant, who has worked in well known British utility companies and as a consultant. Since 2011 fate has thrown her into the hazards of Nigerian Public Finance, first as Commissioner of Finance in Ogun State and now at the centre in Abuja.
This is our team for this year’s Dialogue. If you listen carefully, I believe you will pick a useful idea or two on the economy, and perhaps even, on how you can hedge, on your own dwindling personal finances. Finally I will like to thank our very special guest, Speaker Dogara for making time to share his thoughts with us. To all of you who are here because you care about our country and how it is managed, thank you for your engagement. May our future be better than our past. Thank you very much. * Yusuf, Chairman of Media Trust Limited, delivered this welcome address at the 14th Daily Trust Annual Dialogue yesterday.