Why Buhari’s policies can’t be blamed for last recession – Ayodele Sopitan

“In fact, Russia, in spite of their huge reserves also went into recession, despite going through $80billion to prop up their tumbling Rouble. Brazil, with nearly five times our reserves went into recession. So, what marks a difference btw us and these countries, which could have helped us avert the recession?”

A concerned Nigerian with depth knowledge of Economics, Ayodele P. Sopitan, has reportedly written about why the reception witnessed a year after emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari could not be blamed on his economic policies but on oil price crash.

According to him, major oil producing countries including Russia, due to the oil price crash, also went into recession.

A social media activist, Akan Ebenezer, made reference to Sopitan’s piece on the issue of reception in his bid to expose the “hypocrisy” of politicians of Nigeria, who many blame for not only mismanaging the huge wealth gained from oil price soars during their 16 years of government without tangible projects done but are also now blaming Buhari, who has managed to give massive infrastructural development to the country despite 100 percent oil price crash.

He quoted Sopitan as saying, “The truth of the matter is that I only gave a dose of allowance to the frustrations expressed by many, over Buhari’s perceived role in causing the recession through his policies, by agreeing to allocate 5% to that factor.
In the actual sense, the recession was caused by the crash in oil prices, 100%.

“The profligate role of the last govt is actually intertwined with the oil price crash factor. To buttress this point, look around the world, the only major oil producing countries who didn’t go into recession were either countries with diverse economies like Canada, America & Norway, or countries with gargantuan fx reserves like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the other major middle east producers.

“In fact, Russia, in spite of their huge reserves also went into recession, despite going through $80billion to prop up their tumbling Rouble. Brazil, with nearly five times our reserves went into recession. So, what marks a difference btw us and these countries, which could have helped us avert the recession? I am yet to get any satisfactory response to this question from anyone since we experienced that debilitating economic downturn”.