Nigeria's Seven-Point agenda and the financial crisis: Implications for growth and development

Using empirical data, this paper argues that achieving ‚the Seven-Point
Agenda‛ would be nearly impossible taking into consideration the current
global economic crisis, Nigeria’s looming budget deficits and the volatility of
international oil prices. The paper suggests that there is always the risk of
failure to Nigeria’s reform programs given the country’s unending political
corruption – a problem that cannot be expected to improve given the high
levels of uncertainty that have been brought on by the global economic crisis,
budget deficits, inflation and the volatility of both the stock market and
international oil prices. The paper argues that the sometimes wild
inconsistency of government policies hampers the success of reform programs
and that, if anything, the only consistency in Nigerian governance seems to be
corruption. Accordingly, today, amidst structural corruption, poor budgetary
controls, and other challenges to policy implementation, reform programs are
often viewed as a ‘thing of the past.’ For the Seven-Point Agenda to succeed,
it is therefore imperative that the corrupt political machinations and the lack
of budgetary discipline be thoroughly considered and openly discussed by all
stakeholders involved in the process. This is particularly true given the
aforementioned economic challenges with which Nigeria is now faced.