The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said that inappropriate monetary and fiscal policy contributes to the rising inflation in the country. Currently, the country’s inflation rate is 21.34 per cent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Obi, while speaking at Chatham House, London on Monday about his plans if elected the president of Nigeria, said the weakness of the country’s fiscal space is affecting its economy.
Obi was responding to a question from the packed audience about how his government would relate with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The CBN governor will maintain his independence, he will be respected. Again, it is not the problem of the person there. The CBN has a role of monitoring policy. The fiscal space is like a football field. When somebody who is supposed to play a particular wing is no longer there, you find people playing various wings,” he said.
“Replacing Godwin (Emefiele) and putting somebody else there, with that level of fiscal rascality, which is what is fuelling our inflation and our rate of exchange (won’t achieve much result)… these are some of the things we need to cut. As long as the government continues on that fiscal rascality, our situation will not go,” Obi said.