FG Pushes Back At Soludo, Accuses The Ex-CBN Gov Of “Misquoting” Economic Data

The Federal Government has come down hard on a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, accusing him of “deliberately misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job.”

Government’s harsh words were in response to Soludo’s recent article in some Nigerian publications titled, “Buhari Vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election,” by Charles Soludo.

In the article, which has ignited intense controversy, Soludo had, among others, said that by his calculation, if the economy was better managed, the nation’s foreign reserves should have been between $102 –$118 billion and the exchange rate around N112 before the fall in oil prices, adding: “As of now, the reserves should be around $90 billion and exchange rate no higher than N125 per dollar.”

In a rather unsparing response dripping with knocks for the former apex bank’s chief executive, captioned “Soludo’s Self-Serving Article on Economic Management is Deficit in Facts, Logic and Honour” and issued by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy (CME) and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the government said Soludo’s article was littered with abusive and unbecoming language.

The minister, who advised Nigerians who were yet to read the controversial article to do so, added: “It shows how an embittered loser in the Nigerian political space can get so derailed that they commit intellectual harakiri by deliberately misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job.

“We hope all the intellectuals in the international circles in which Professor Soludo has told us he flies around will read what a Professor of Economics has chosen to do with his intellect.

“In this one article, Soludo has shamelessly pandered to so many past leaders that Nigerians are asking one more time – what position is Soludo gunning for now? He claims in his article that he has had his own share of public service, yet he has failed twice in his attempts to be Governor of Anambra State and Vice Presidential candidate of various parties.”