The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organization, Afenifere, yesterday, called on the President Bola Tinubu Federal Government to be wary of the recent advice of the World Bank, in which it prescribed the reduction in government’s support for social services in Nigeria. World Bank Group’s Senior Vice President, Indermit Gill, had at a programme early this week in Abuja, referred to the withdrawal of support being provided by the government for social and economic programmes in Nigeria and the floating of the Naira.
Gill spoke at the three-day Summit of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) that started on Monday, October 14. The World Bank’s boss said the results of the current efforts would be seen in 10 to 15 years.
Reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Jare Ajayi, urged the federal government to be wary of the advice. In a statement he signed, Ajayi said: “Firstly, the current administration under President Bola Tinubu would have run its terms before the 10 to 15 years the presumed dividends of the World Bank prescriptions will manifest. “Meaning that this administration may then only be remembered for the sacrifices made by the people and the attendant sufferings while another administration would take the credit for the dividends – if at all. “So, rather than continuing with the Bank’s policies, resort should be made to policies that boost local businesses and encourage local initiatives thus reducing dependence on imported goods.” Ajayi said the call on the President to be wary of prescriptions by the Bretton Woods institutions was predicated on what happened to countries that followed various prescriptions made by either the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) or both of them.
He recalled that most of the countries that heeded the prescriptions of these two institutions ended up in worse situations than the ones that made them run to either or both institutions.
Countries cited included Mexico, Mozambique, Ghana, Argentina, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.
Ajayi added: “The conditions given by the Bank included budget cuts, removal of subsidies from some services being provided for the people and the devaluation of the country’s currency. But, instead of heeding the advice, the Malaysian PM did the exact opposite. Of course, it was tough initially. Today, however, Malaysia is growing economically and is one of the few countries that are shedding off the toga of ‘third-worldism’.
“What we are saying is that while it is important to lay a good foundation for economic recovery, the models being prescribed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be no-go areas because of the havoc such models have wreaked in some of the countries that applied them.”
