Osinbajo: ‘Common sense economics’ not sustainable
Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, last week, admitted that the administration was struggling with fulfilling its promise of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
On July 2, Vice President Osinbajo asserted that the Federal Government will employ a common-sense strategy to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Speaking in Abuja when he chaired the inaugural meeting of a committee of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS), he said, among others:
“I think we really need to take a deep dive because governments have made several efforts at poverty alleviation but generally speaking, they have not yielded the sort of results they should yield.
“And I think it is because there is a lot of focus on documentation and paperwork and very few commonsense approaches.”
Osinbajo’s call for a common sense strategy (whatever that means) in lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty sends strong signals that the economic models of the NPRGS appear unproductive, if not fruitless.
Indeed, Osinbajo’s confession confirms long-held doubts that the government’s poverty alleviation programs were not sustainable, and may have become conduits for financial leakages.
If anything, many years down the line, Nigeria has continued to occupy the disgraceful position of world’s poverty capital.
While the Vice President pontificates, posers that require answers include, among others:
1, Are Nigerians to expect outright jettisoning of the implementation of the economic plans of the NPRGS?
2, Or, should they anticipate an injection of new economic strategies to the NPRGS plans based on current realities?
Bearing in mind that the Buhari administration would elapse in less than 24 months, coupled with the uncertainty of a new administration continuing with the NPRGS programme, it would seem that the administration is basically considering a deserved rest to rework its poor performing strategies.