Battle of Two Truth Benders: Soludo versus Okonjo-Iweala - 1... by Dele Sobowale

“A truth that’s told with bad intent/ Beats all the lies you can invent.” William Blake, 1757-1827. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS).
Britain found it necessary to establish a propaganda unit during the Second World War to counter the propaganda outfit of the Germans – headed by Joseph Goebbels, 1897-1945. Tucked under Britain’s MI6, the propaganda unit operated under the principle that “truth is too precious to be presented pure; you have to bend it a little”. From that came the appellation of “truth-benders”. Truth-benders generally operate with a mixture of half-truths, exaggerations, clever falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims. They are also frequently careless with historical facts – knowing that most people don’t remember what happened yesterday – not to talk of 2004.
In Nigeria, right now, two great Nigerian economists, as well as two great truth-benders are at war. Professor Chukwumah Soludo, former Chief Economic Adviser, ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Coordinating Minister for the Economy, CME, and two-time Minister of Finance have been publishing, for global consumption, a series of articles, purporting to act out of deep patriotism – while forgetting the dictum by Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, who declared long ago that “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”.

Anybody who believes that their motives are entirely pure must be living in a fools’ paradise. Reading through the submissions, presented so far, and as a close watcher of the two, since they were brought to prominence in Nigeria by former President Obasanjo, during his second term, it is difficult to believe that the two of them can pack so many half-truths, disguised as immutable facts, into one publication.
Unfortunately, but expectedly, the two have been joined by a lot of “know-nothings” on both sides, who comment from partisan positions. We have heard from Governors, politicians, political party men – most of who are neither economists, nor are they in possession of detailed facts to challenge the two combatants and their self-serving utterances. In fact, if the truth must be told, Soludo and Okonjo-Iweala are both disreputable liars on important matters affecting our nation since 2004 when their paths crossed in Abuja.
Then, as Chief Economic Adviser to Obasanjo, Soludo presented a document, titled NEEDS I, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies, in 2004, which was supposed to be the blueprint for our future development. It was salad bowl full of academic illusions, and that fact was pointed out at the time right here in VANGUARD. As early as 2005, when there was talk of NEEDS II, in an Editorial I wrote for VANGUARD, we advocated the deferment of NEEDS II because it was clear that NEEDS I was already failing. Yet, both Soludo and Okonjo-Iweala praised it as a monumental achievement. Till today NEEDS I have not been fully implemented. It was essentially a waste of funds. It was on the basis of the bogus claims and projections in NEEDS I that Soludo was elevated to the position of the CBN Governor.
Thus, in his article published on page 60 of the PUNCH on February 2, 2004, Soludo published as testimonial by Obasanjo about him in 2004 – just after the release of NEEDS. It amounted to being clever by half. Obasanjo, not being an economist, could not possibly have known he had been sold an old banger by one of the best economic “used car salesmen” and con men in the business – Soludo.

But, those were days of mutual back scratching. It will now be difficult to know if Madam actually believed all the fallacies in NEEDS I. But, she praised it all the same. And, it is difficult to know where, why and when they parted ways, because that would provide an insight into the current vehement disputes. Nevertheless, we are confronted with claims and counter-claims, on both sides, and it is left for third party economists and financial experts to sort out the mess for the rest of Nigerians. The reader should at all times remember that “Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” (I.F. Stone in VBQ). Nothing, except that which had been verified by independent observers. Now we turn to the substance of the current war.
It is very easy to know where to start this commentary on their recent statements. The place to start is with the Minister of Finance and the statement credited to her. According to her, “If Prof. Chukwumah Soludo wants to regain respect, he should return to the path of professionalism. He certainly needs something to improve his image from that of someone whose sojourn into National Economic Management ended in disaster for the banking sector…”.

Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.I.T, where Okonjo-Iweala attended university, were hot-beds of debate on every issue on earth. It would be inconceivable that as an undergraduate, a colleague would raise an issue about economic performance and young Ngozi would reply with a personal attack. Even in her Sophomore year (level 200 in Nigeria), her classmates would have wondered if she had not become unhinged. It would have been considered unprofessional conduct among university students.