Abel Aiyedogbon is the Chairman, Church Leaders and Ministers Fellowship of Nigeria, an economic expert and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountant, in this interview, he spoke on the need to elect credible leaders in the forthcoming 2023 election. He also cautions government against unguarded borrowing. Excerpt;
First, what is your message for this season?
We should remember that this is a period a Saviour was born to the world. So, this is a period of joy, happiness and restoration. A child is born, a son is given. It’s a precious gift to the whole world and names were given to the child as Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Our lives should radiate all of these.
At this special season, we need God in Nigeria and I want to charge everyone to look unto God at this time. We need a deliverer. When we look at history, anytime we need a deliverer, God gives one. When we need a deliverer from Satan, Christ came. At this time, we need a leader who can take us to where we should be, let us look at the antecedent of those ones vying for different positions and decide. We should consider if they are reliable and honest but above all, we should approach God over this, as humans, we look at the face but God looks at the heart.
You held a Press Conference under the auspice of Church Leaders and Ministers Fellowship to kick against the choice of Muslim-Muslim for the APC presidency in Nigeria, are you still maintaining that ground?
We’ve not changed our position, individual can express their feelings on issue but we align with the National Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). We don’t want Muslim-Muslim ticket. Anyone can decide against this even among us because of freedom we all have.
Sir, let’s go into economy, the IMF and world bank recently declared that the coming government may use the entire revenue to service loan, what’s your take?
Loan per say is not bad if used for productive purposes. You’re borrowing money to bridge the gap between your income and expenditure but generally you don’t borrow to finance current expenditure. But in Nigeria, we borrow without thinking how to repay. Do we have to put our children unborn in bondage of loan repayment? Nigeria has been experiencing unstable revenue and information has it that our current revenue, if used for loan repayment and servicing cannot be enough. It’s a serious challenge that incoming government may not be able to pay salary, and such is possible in Kwara State too. A time is coming that we won’t be able to pay again.
We have been borrowing money to a very dangerous level. I’m afraid, whoever is elected President may have difficulty in performing. I want to advice that we should be very careful both at the Federal and State levels because, he who go borrowing, will go sorrowing. A borrower is the servant of lender, we need to be careful less we become servant. If we fail to pay, those people who give us the money may start taking our facilities. They can impound anything belonging to the country.
What’s your take on the new naira notes and the time frame to submit the old ones?
It’s a good development to monitor the performance of the economy and when we look at our naira, it’s depreciating against the dollar, hence, the need to arrest the situation. But one major fear with our processes is that things are not always done properly. Imagine the Minister of Finance said openly at the Red Chamber that she’s not aware of the plan to change the naira. This is not very good for the economy. Though change of country’s legal tender is a good policy that is usually practise in major countries of the world. Government should educate people more on e-banking. For an example, how many people understands e-banking? As a country, we must understand that it’s not easy to run cashless policy, it can be hijacked by fraudsters.
