Jonathan’s economic team: Tough task still ahead

As the nation’s economic woes continue even after successful elections, all eyes are on the new economic team of President Goodluck Jonathan.

But can the new team crack all the knotty issues plaguing an average Nigerian?

Will they be able to put food on the table of the hungry masses” What of our comatose infrastructure. Can this team fix it. Will they avoid the business-as-usual syndrome of their predecessors?
Well, going by the pedigree of who-is-who in the team, Nigerians have decided to set agenda for this dream team to help them hit the ground running.

As the nation eagerly awaits the return of the Managing Director of the World Bank, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala ,to lead the pack of other technocrats in President Jonathan’s economic team-expected to kickstart the nation’s transformation-no few Nigerians are apprehensive that the task ahead is definitely Herculean.

No thanks to the decades of neglect, corruption and maladministration that have painfully midwifed economic collapse, industrial shutdown, joblessness, mass poverty, dilapidated infrastructure, mounting domestic and foreign debts as well as insecurity of life, property and investments in the country.
Already financial experts have set agenda for the yet-to-be inaugurated economic team with a tall order to ensure fiscal discipline in the management of the nation’s vast resources. This will include but not limited to “the need to reduce oil dependence, increase in employment, resolve the banking crisis, restore investor confidence and optimism in the capital market, protect the naira value in the foreign exchange market, protect local industry, comply with World Trade Organisation (WTO) and articles, and ensure transparency in the management of oil revenues,” according to Financial Derivatives, an economic and financial advisory outfit.

But can this dream team pull strings that will catapult Nigeria into the arena of the 20 advanced economies by year 2020? Can they make Nigerians afford three square meals a day? Will their output encourage Nigerians to stay in Nigeria rather than trekking overseas via Libya? Well, the antecedents of who is who in the proposed team will go a long way to do justice to these questions.

Who are the members of the new team?
Touted as number one in the team is Madam Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance minister; Mr. Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga; the last Minister of Finance, who now mans the Trade and Investment Ministry; Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; Minister of the National Planning Commission, Professor Bart Nnaji, Minister of Power; Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Resources Minister; Prof Abubakar Sambo ,Special Adviser to the President on Energy and the yet-to-be-named Chief Economic Adviser.
Also in the team are Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN); Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, Director General of the Debt Management Office(DMO) and the Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa.