The President of Nigeria Economic Society and a World Bank consultant, Olu Ajakaiye, has described the economic growth recorded during the administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan, as fake.
Ajakaiye, while delivering a Keynote address at the 2017 edition of The Bullion Lecture organised by the Centre for Financial Journalism, yesterday, explained that the economic growth under Jonathan was fictitious because government only deployed oil revenue into the economy.
He said, “When the economy was growing in a fictitious way — I regarded the growth of 2010 to 2014 as fictitious. Why is it fictitious, it is growth that is driven by government just deploying oil revenue into the economy.
“The structure remained dis-articulated and we are actually deceiving ourselves in a very interesting way by saying the economy leaped-frog, we have now got to a stage where we are arrived, because in advanced countries, service sector is now dominant.
“They call it tertiarisation of the economy. Our economy was prematurely tertiarised, and this was the harbinger of poverty.
“I always tell people, when you go to Europe where their economy is already tertiarised, do you see anybody running after you in traffic to sell you recharge card? Do you see anybody hanging pure water in front of you? Do you see people running 140? That is our tertiarised service sector.”
Ajakaiye, had earlier urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to develop Nigeria even if it means stealing from other countries.
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