An economist, Mr Pascal Odigbo, on Tuesday said the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala should have put strategies in place to deal with effects of drop in oil price long before it happened.
“This (drop in oil prices) has been expected, its been long coming. If you have been a following the global economies and business, you would have seen that this would have come earlier.
“I am expecting that before now, some of these things would have been put in place” adding that “that is what it means to over see things”, he said on Sunrise Daily.
He further expressed concern that despite warnings by “your (Nigeria’s) net importer of oil has told you that we will become a net exporter of oil and gave you time lines”, the Federal Government did not do enough to prepare for the rainy day.
Though he noted that a lot of politics has eroded the ethics of governance, he insisted that “the economy agenda has to be put in a manner that you can protect the people from this kind of announcement. The announcement, the minister made on Sunday, has sent shivers to the markets and it is clear that people are going to start getting into panic mode”.
He likened the situation to the Christmas celebration which “does not come all of a sudden. It comes 25th of December” adding that “you plan towards it”.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had on Sunday appealed to Nigerians to tighten their belts ahead of the stringent economic measures being proposed by the Federal Government following a drop in oil price in the global market.
Addressing a Media Briefing in Abuja Dr Okonjo-Iweala declared that the Federal Ministry of Finance has been keeping a close eye on movements in global oil prices because of the critical importance of oil as the country’s most important source of revenue.
As part of the response, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the 2015 Budget proposal to the National Assembly have been revised.
As a result, the Federal Government will be proposing a benchmark of $73 dollars per barrel to the National Assembly compared to the earlier proposed benchmark of $78.
