Governors responsible for Jonathan's woes - Lemo

The former president in an interview with Bloomberg TV had revealed that state governors were to blame for pressurising him to spend from the reserve fund thereby reducing the $20 billion at the inception of his administration left by Olusegun Obasanjo to about $2 billion when he left office on May 29, 2015.

This has been corroborated by Lemo who spoke at the 61st annual Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria National Conference lecture, entitled: The Nigerian Economy: The Past, Present and the Future. He said the governors on several occasions arm-twisted Jonathan to share the fund from the account which was set-up by former president, Goodluck Jonathan. He said: “During some of the Federal Executive Council sessions, where I was
present, the issue of saving funds generated from the sales of excess crude came up, but most of the governors at the time firmly opposed the idea.  “They opposed it so that more money could be available to fund many bogus budgets at state levels, often arguing that there was no need for saving for the rainy day, since, as some of them said, the day was already rainy. “They insisted that the funds be shared among the states.

 Unfortunately, it greatly depleted the funds the Federal Government tried to save.” He said the administration of Obasanjo could have done better but for the distractions and push backs from the National Assembly. He noted however that the economy got better after 2003 mainly due to the emergence of a strong economic team. He commented on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and set the country is in dire need of policy makers. “While statistics point to improvements in the area of national security, economic problems are humongous and the presence of the political will to move the nation forward was not enough to achieve a quick fix.  ‘’Recent, macro-economic indices show that Nigeria’s economy is in dire need of attention by policy makers. Inequalities have been widening and security challenges appear hydra-headed.” “We must restructure because the present structure is too expensive, as it emphasizes resource sharing as opposed to production. The tax laws should be amended so that each zone will have total control over its resources.

 “The economy must be diversified with immediate effect, and in addition, we need to move faster on the increase in our local petroleum refining capacity. More refineries should be privatised without delay.  “We should also embrace Nigerian-made products and this should start with such basic things as school uniforms, textiles, shoes etc . The government should also look beyond the annual budget for funding infrastructure. READ ALSO: States get highest federal allocation, pledge quick salaries  ‘’We have to reverse the negative trend of spending more of our resources to nurture the bloated government structure. “We must rebuild the public school system and re-introduce technical education. We also need to build strong institutions and enhance property rights because many of the