A UNITED States-based Developmental Economist, Mr. Odilim Enwegbara, yesterday said the nation's economy is in bad shape. He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to overhaul his economic management team.
The economist said the nation's economy was better under former President Olusegun Obasanjo than under the present administration.
He asked the President to drop the Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, from his cabinet.
The economist also urged President Jonathan to call the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to order on the Rivers State political crisis.
Enwegbara, who addressed reporters in Abuja, noted that the present members of the nation's economic team have hijacked the President.
He said: "To manage the economy is not purely an economic issue. It requires politicians because they are emotionally attached to the problem and they have something at stake, if the economy is not moving well. But it's not for all those so-called technocrats.
"The people we have so far called in to manage our economy are incompetent and they have not demonstrated interest in the masses.
"They come up with cooked-up figures, which I always challenge. But I can tell you that our economy is worse than during Obasanjo's era.
"Mr. President should overhaul his cabinet and bring in people who will really transform the economy. He needs such a minister who will tell him: 'I want to create 10 million jobs in a year' and he will be able to verify the workability of such proposals."
Responding to a question, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-trained economist said he was worried that some members of the Economic Management Team have hijacked the President.
Enwagbara added: "I am one of those who say, 'let's close our borders so that the pressure to import will be closed'.
"Our monetary and fiscal policies are disjointed and turned upside down. They are not developmental; they are anti-growth, anti-job, anti-everything.
"But they have hijacked our honest President and clapped hands for him. The man has joined hands with them and also is also clapping."
The economist said the problem of the economy has nothing to do with borrowing but diverting the borrowed funds into private pockets and stashing such in foreign economies. He asked the President to drop the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, from his cabinet.
Enwegbara said: "The problem is the person whom they made the Minister of Finance. I know her since years back. I invited her to MIT to a conference I organised; I respect her. But she cannot manage this economy. She has never managed any economy.
"She has been a staff of the World Bank, running the politics of World Bank. To manage the economy needs people who are on the ground, who have gone through the process.
"She has lived outside this country for too long and came back from a broken institution. The system they put in place (World Bank and IMF) is to plunder our economy. You can't tell me when her children are Americans; she came from the headquarters of American imperialism. I don't see that patriotism in her.
"She has to prove to me that she is patriotic. Let her bring her children to the country so that they too will interact with others and they will tell them, see our situation."
