-By Oriade Ayomide
The Nigerian Senate yesterday labeled the 2014 Appropriation bill presented by the Finance Minister NgoziOkonjo-Iweala an IMF cum World Bank agenda which is not suitable for operation in Nigeria. One of the senators who picked notable lapses in the appropriation bill was Smart Adeyemi. The Senator accused the finance minister of imposing economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Nigeria.
According to him, “Okonjo-Iweala should be told in clear terms that the economic policies of the IMF and the World Bank cannot work in Nigeria. The policy must be reviewed. The IMF and World Bank policies cannot work 100 per cent in Nigeria. We don’t need IMF recommendations.What we need is what will impact on the lives of Nigerians. We need to work on budget management and concentrate on key areas such as power and other sectors of the economy.”
Senator Abdul Ningi, who also opposed the entrenchment of foreign economic policies in Nigeria said Nigeria should rather evolve an indigenous economic policy that would impact positively on the economy and the citizenry. He stressed that there was the need for the nation’s economic manager to note that while western economies were collapsing, the ‘homegrown economies of India and China were waxing stronger.
On his part, SenatorOlusolaAdeyeye, accused the Finance minister of confusing Nigerians with ‘foreign economic jargon’, which he tagged ‘Okonjonomics’.He said ‘Okonjonomics’ had no positive impact on “our domestic economy and lives of Nigerians.”
