Restructuring economy’ll aid equitable distribution of wealth not division—Idika Kalu
Contrary to fears and tension surrounding the clamour for economic restructuring of the country, a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Idika Kalu, has listed three advantages that will result from the deal to include increased Gross Domestic Product, stable exchange rate and effective privatisation of government-owned enterprises.
He argued that restructuring means putting the way and manner national wealth and resources are generated and ordered to maintain balance and not to create division along any ethnic or religious lines.
He added that restructuring will aid the growth of the country’s economy as it will aid equitable distribution of resources in the country.
Speaking as a panellist at a policy town hall meeting organised by The Liberal Forum, University of Lagos weekend, he said “This is a fantastic nation in terms of endowment but we have to accept that there is a problem. The idea of restructuring is to make sure that resources are effectively utilised at the base where those funds are coming from rather than being transferred to a centre that is very far, so that you can determine the needs of the locality.
“You leverage and you can give more money to those who may not have enough resources. If you restructure, you are devolving powers to areas where the resources come from. For those areas that don’t have those resources, they are covered by leverage.”
He spoke alongside the Chief Executive Officer, RTC Advisory Committee, Mr. Opeyemi Agbaje; a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia; and a According to him, “We also need to restructure our macro economy policy. As somebody who has been involved for quite a while, I can say there is a need for continuous restructuring of policy. We need to move from labour intensive to higher level of use of technology.
“This economy is not being funded adequately. Funding is when you are mobilising resources maximally and you are mobilising additional resources to aid some benefit as much as your budget can take. When you have an economy that by your own choice you have chosen to underfund it for whatever reasons, whether it is ignorance or challenges, there will be issues.
“For privatisation to take place, there are four things to be considered. But what we have done in the past is that we are allocating this by region or ethnic conglomerate or by business interest. We have to go back to having units, we have to go beyond the region. Until we have a government that touches the people directly, we will be postponing the evil day. Now that we have a chance to restructure, let us do it,” Kalu noted.
