The chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Dr Chima Amadi, on Saturday said economic remedies from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank could not revive the Nigerian economy.
He also said the policies of the two international financial institutions may not be able to raise 200million Nigerians out of poverty.
He asked the country to look beyond ideas being imposed by developed countries.
He said developing countries should have the autonomy to choose policies that best suit their conditions.
Amadi, who made the submissions at the 4th National Colloquium in Sokoto, said the country’s high inflation rate was indefensible.
He said, “With a gross domestic product of about $45billion in 2001 and per capita income of about $300 a year, Nigeria has become one of the poorest countries in the world. As at 2000, it had earned about $300bn from oil exports since the mid-1970s, but its per capita income was 20 per cent lower than in 1975.”