The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday took the former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Chukwuma Soludo, to the cleaners over his criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan’s management of the country’s economy, saying his comments amounted to committing “intellectual hara-kiri”.
The Minister, who spoke through her Special Adviser on Media, Paul Nwabuikwu, accused Mr. Soludo of single-handedly mismanaging the country’s banking sector between May 2004 and May 2009 and plunging the country into “an incredible accumulation of liabilities that will cost tax payers about N5.67 trillion”.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, apparently livid, described the former CBN governor as “an embittered loser in the Nigerian political space” who is “so derailed” to “commit intellectual harakiri by deliberately misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job”.
“Soludo has shamelessly pandered to so many past leaders that Nigerians are asking one more time – what position is Soludo gunning for now?” she asked.
“There is definitely an issue of character with Prof. Charles Soludo and his desperate search for power and relevance in Nigeria. Nigerians should therefore beware of so-called intellectuals without character and wisdom because this combination is fatal,” she added.
