The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili yesterday openly disagreed on the state of the nation at the ongoing conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Enugu.
While the minister contended that what Nigeria needed to do to prosper was engage in research and pay much attention to production, rather than consumption, Ezekwesili said the federal government plunged Nigerians into abject poverty by virtue of its subsidy removal policy which she described as good reform policy done in wrong direction.
‘’China spends so much on research and development, whereas Nigeria spends so much on the provision of infrastructure. Until this is done, economic growth and prosperity would continue to elude the country,’’ Tunji-Ojo said.
But reacting, Ezekwesili insisted that policies such as the removal of oil subsidy were well intentioned but wrongly implemented, hence the spiral inflation that followed such move.
“It is a tough job to have to defend the APC government. You can do the right policies, but if you do it the wrong way, there will be a problem,’’ she said.
Taking the price of petroleum, for instance, she lamented that the reform was ill-prepared and ill-conceived.
She added: “That is not how to do reforms. The reform was not prepared for. It was a good reform done the wrong way. It is bad because inflation is punishing the populace. You really have to prepare for reform.”
