Nigeria is 62 years old today, celebrating its anniversary of independence from being a British Colony. Who’s Nigeria’s best leader since independence in 1960? The country has so far been ruled and governed by 12 heads of state, with an average of five years in office per leader. But only eight of these leaders were in power for more than two years. If you’re up-to-date with Nigeria’s leadership history, which of the leaders do you think was the best? How is this measured? I answer these questions simply using two economic variables: the price of oil and growth in the gross domestic product (GDP). Rising oil prices represent the inflow of resources, an opportunity being presented for a leader to finance economic progress – to lay the foundation of unprecedented prosperity. On the other hand, growth in GDP reflects what the leader did with the opportunity, an outcome of what the oil fortune was used for. That said, let us plough through the numbers as we shovel out some stylised f
The executive branch of government holds a monopoly on public policy. And, if policymaking is not shielded from fraught political interferences, no meaningful results will be achieved because most political interests are anti-people and at the same time pro-corrupt politicians. Had Prof Soludo and Mr Sanusi (former heads of the central bank of Nigeria) been allowed at the helm of the institution for two consecutive terms of five years (a total of 20 years of them running the apex bank), regardless of who was holding the keys to the Aso Rock (Nigeria's equivalent of US White House or the UK’s 10 Downing Street), the Nigerian economy might not have slipped into the current steepest downturn. I have three brief points. My reasons--the duo have a couple of things in common: 👇 (1) In my opinion, they are skilled at central banking than all their predecessors as both of them hold degrees in econ. (2) They are highly ambitious! And would go to any length to protect their names-- to avoi