Buhari’s economic conference

 

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to give the opening address tomorrow at an economic retreat convened by the National Economic Council. Instead of an elaborate jamboree, the Buhari presidency, perhaps responding to criticisms, has planned this retreat to take place at the Aso Villa. The 36 governors are expected to attend, with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as chairman. It is also expected they will ask some experts to address the two-day meeting. The government has done well to organise the retreat. But the president is wrong to plan to address the meeting on the first day and then move on to other things. He should stay through the proceedings, internalise the discussions, and take charge of the outcomes. For in the end, it is his economic policy the retreat will be attempting to fashion into a governing paradigm.

Had the ruling party and the Buhari presidency on assumption of office modified and restructured their economic policy into something more manageable, realistic and implementable, and had they rendered it succinctly in a fashion to resonate with the public, no one would be asking the president to spell out the framework of his economic policy, nor advising him to hold an economic summit. The retreat is, therefore, an indication of the president’s policy shortcomings. It would be indefensible should he decide to absent himself from the main discussions. He will sharpen and fine-tune his appreciation of the main economic and social issues his government will be contending with in the coming years if he makes himself available throughout the summit. Whatever executive summary his aides prepare for him will not capture the essence of the retreat as much as his presence, participation and understanding of the debates and discussions.

The vice president may be the chairman of the Economic Council, but in the end, it is President Buhari’s economic programme that will be implemented, and on which his government will be judged. The president still talks animatedly of his anti-corruption war, as if that in itself is a big policy. It is time he left the anti-graft war to the agencies set up to fight it. All they require from him are his encouragement, empowerment, inspiration and occasional intervention. It is time he stated his vision for the country, especially the social, economic and political ideas by which he hopes the country’s present and future would be anchored. Surely, by now, he must recognise that the country is in uproar because he has not set out the ideas and directions required to move everyone determinedly towards defined and accessible goals. If he does not quickly fill the void, centrifugal forces would step in, as indeed they are doing already, in a way neither he nor anyone would be able to control, let alone refine.