The Director-General of the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration (NCEMA), Prof. Mike Obadan, yesterday stated that government’s action to resume ties with the IMF was in the public interest.

Obadan, who spoke with reporters in Ibadan shortly after the opening ceremony of the yearly DPRS Directors Conference, admonished Nigerians to support the government in its actions, as according to him, the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration knows what is best for the country.

“If the government is thinking of re-establishing a relationship with the IMF, I think it is in a better position to weigh the various options as to what serve the national interest, and so if the government is of the opinion that the return of the global organisation to the country as it were is in the public interest, then Nigerians should not have any objection at all,” he stated.

Asked on whether government’s action would not amount to policy inconsistency, the NCEMA boss said there was nothing of such.

Said he: “That is not policy inconsistency. Nobody faulted the government when it decided to suspend the staff monitoring programme. Actually, the government never severed the relationship with the IMF, it only suspended an aspect of the programme it had with the organisation. So if the government decides now that the time is ripe for the IMF to come, there is nothing wrong with it.”

Obadan, however, cautioned the government in its dealings with the organisation, saying that the present administration in the new relationship should learn to take some independent decisions and resist being dominated by the IMF.

Guardian (Nigeria), June 25, 2002