The President of Nigeria Economic Society and a World Bank consultant,
Olu Ajakaiye, has described the economic growth recorded during the
administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan as fake.
Ajakaiye, while delivering a Keynote address at the 2017
edition of The Bullion Lecture organised by the Centre for Financial Journalism
yesterday, explained that the economic growth under Jonathan was fictitious
because government only deployed oil revenue into the economy.
He said, “When the economy was growing in a fictitious way —
I regarded the growth of 2010 to 2014 as fictitious. Why is it fictitious, it
is growth that is driven by government just deploying oil revenue into the
economy.
“The structure remained dis-articulated and we are actually
deceiving ourselves in a very interesting way by saying the economy
leaped-frog, we have now got to a stage where we are arrived, because in
advanced countries, service sector is now dominant.
“They call it tertiarisation of the economy. Our economy was
prematurely tertiarised, and this was the harbinger of poverty.
“I always tell people, when you go to Europe where their
economy is already tertiarised, do you see anybody running after you in traffic
to sell you recharge card? Do you see anybody hanging pure water in front of
you? Do you see people running 140? That is our tertiarised service sector.”
Ajakaiye, had earlier urged the President Muhammadu
Buhari-led Federal Government to develop Nigeria even if it means stealing from
other countries.
By Seun Opejobi
