APC brought American expert to win election. Why not another expert to fix economy? by Magnus Onyibe

In the heat of the election to halt Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s 16 years rule in 2015, the new coalition of opposition political parties to form All Progressives Congress, APC brought in a renown American political strategist, David Axerold to help develop and implement the strategy that facilitated the demise of the former ruling party.

For those who may not be aware, David Axerold was the chief strategist for president Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign in 2008 which made him the first black president of the USA. Axerold also served in the same capacity for the re-election of Obama  in 2012.

The renown political strategist is currently a director of the Institute of politics at the university of Chicago, USA.
Recall that before the engagement of the American expert in political strategy , the opposition parties had failed in three previous election circles, 2003, 2007 and 2011 to unseat the PDP as the ruling party.

General Muhamadu Buhari, GMB as he was known then, was a presidential candidate in all the three times vying on the platform of three different political parties and failed to win the contest until the APC leveraged the expertise of mr Axerold in the last presidential election in 2015 and won.

The justification for relying on an American political strategist to facilitate APC ‘s success is in part borne out of the fact that Nigeria operates the presidential system of governance which originated from the USA and the expert whom the APC engaged had a good track record of achieving victory for president Obama twice.

So for Nigeria to dig herself out of the economic hole that it is currently stuck in,it would be wise to also resort to seeking assistance from the USA for a development strategist  because that country remains the biggest economy in the world which has probably experienced the most economic booms and bursts in the history of capitalism.

If president Buhari decides to take the bait of inviting accomplished US economists  like Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman , it won’t be an oddity because even Great Britain hired the current governor of Bank of England,Mark carney who is a Canadian.
Considering that Britain was once the colonial master of Canada, it could have been considered demeaning to seek help from a vassal state, but in the spirit of globalization and perhaps mobility of labour, Britons did not shy away from choosing the most viable option required to solve an identified challenge.

What’s more,the managing director of the ubiquitous and highly successful Emirates airline, owned by Dubai, United Arab Emirates , UAE, Tim Clark is a Briton not an Emirati, which is quite remarkable.

Krugman and Stiglize who are Nobel prize winners in economics and have at one time or the other served as advisers to the world bank and IMF, are also consultants to numerous countries including serving as advisers to presidents in their home country, USA and also Japan, China as well as Greece amongst many others in Europe and Asia.

The wealth of experience of the aforementioned economics juggernauts earlier listed can not be overstated, but suffice it to say that virtually every economic principles propounded by Milton Keynes-father and purveyor of supply side economics school of thought- in the past three decades have been improved upon and advanced by Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman etc.

While Stiglitz is the director of the trail blazing,Earth Institute based in the prestigious university of Chicago, krugman is a professor of economics in the City University of New York and a columnist with New York Times, NYT .

Working with a host of equally good Nigerian economists who are authorities in their rights and who were part of the transition committee  of govt that facilitated the transfer of operations from the last administration to the present one, as well participants in the recent Govt pally with the private sector, Nigeria can leverage on both local and international experts to realize her latent economic potentials which have remained untapped even after fifty six, 56 years of independence.

Now, some hardline proponents of home grown development may argue against the idea of inviting international economists to assist in forging new economic path for the  nation  on the basis of the fact that Nigeria is not lacking in that regard.

Such attitude would  not be surprising , because in the past,some Nigerians were averse to the engagement of foreign football coaches to train our teams to attain Olympic and World Cup standards. They also hinged their objections  on similar precepts, however the team coached by foreign experts went on to win the Olympics gold medal in Atlanta, USA in 1986 and Nigerian players also went on to occupy prime positions in European football clubs which dominated the leagues until recently.

Evidently , just like the resistance to reliance on foreign football coaches to train our footballers by some members of society,the argument against looking towards the advanced society to source economic experts to help recaliberate our economy may be hinged more on emotions derived from patriotism,rather than critical thinking.

Whereas it may not be easily discernible that Nigeria is in dire need of out-of-the-box ideas to pull her economy back from the brinks  warranting head hunting beyond Nigerian shores, that is not an indication that the nation is suffering from a dearth of economists.

In the light of the crash in global crude oil price which is Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner, the devastating actions of aggrieved militants on oil/gas infrastructure in the oil rich Niger delta which has resulted in lock-in or leakages of crude oil, some times in excess of one million barrels that could have been exported daily , and the consequential rapid decline in the wellbeing of the masses , the urgency to fix Nigerian economy by changing tactics from sole reliance on oil, becomes more poignant and urgent, hence the need for international experts to aid diversification efforts of Govt.

Both finance minister, Kemi Adeosun and Budget and planning minister, Udo Udoma, already recognize the benefits of external help hence they made provision for external borrowing of approximately $4.5 billion to augment the 2016 appropriation bill of N6.8 trillion.

In fact Adeosun has often repeated in her public speeches that Nigeria is contemplating sourcing part of the funding for budget 2016 from euro bonds and other external sources.

Given the foregoing decisions already taken with respect to shoring up Nigerian economy via external funding, seeking the advice of international economists to further help strengthen the weakening economy should be a next useful step.

Furthermore, there are several other benefits to engaging the calibre of experts earlier listed. Such advantages are the enhancement of Nigeria’s chances of gaining privileged access into certain pools of international funds to lift up the economy which ordinarily would not be available to her, particularly because our current economic managers lack the clout and reach to accomplish such feats.

Take for instance Nigeria’s debt of about $12 billion which was part of the debt owed to world bank and the IMF of which a debt write-off was secured under the watch of Olusegun Obasanjo as president and Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala, as finance minister.

Without doubt, it was a combination of the international contacts of both Obasanjo as a member of Eminent Persons Group-panel of ex-heads of Govt of commonwealth countries  and Iwuala’s experience as former world bank managing director, that enabled Nigeria secure the unprecedented debt forgiveness.

Also consider the billions of Sani Abacha dollars stashed away in Western banks and still stuck there about 20 years after his demise. Involving creditable economists like the ones earlier mentioned would give Nigeria’s  quest to repatriate the funds,  a positive stamp of credibility and facilitate speedier return of the loots for badly needed socioeconomic development back home.

Being big wigs in economics  affairs globally,famous financial experts can put in good words for Nigeria in strategic economic and financial forums such that the country can gain similar shine as countries such as Republic of Georgia, gets when experts use them as positive reference points for successful economic reforms.

With the erudite  international financial experts with trackable records of accomplishments, working with local economists to plot Nigeria’s exit from the present recession trap, l have no doubt that the country would return to a growth path so that citizens wellbeing would improve sooner than later.

Onyibe, a development strategist, futurologist and former Commissoner in delta state Govt is an alumnus of Fletcher school of law and diplomacy, Medford, Massachusetts, USA.