Buhari’s corruption comments on Nigeria scaring investors

President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption is apt and encouraging, but his comments and tacit agreement to statements indicting Nigerians as very corrupt people are scaring investors and giving him away as a bad salesman, analysts and investors told BusinessDay.

Buhari has not hidden his desire to prosecute looters of public treasury and work with various countries to repatriate stolen funds stashed abroad. But this has come with comments inducing negative sentiments about Africa’s biggest economy, which has enormous opportunities waiting to be tapped.

While in London early February, Buhari told the Telegraph that Nigerians’ reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be accepted.

David Cameron, UK’s prime minister, recently said Nigerians are fantastically corrupt people. Buhari did not deny this, but rather agreed that Africa’s largest economy is fantastically corrupt in order not to offend the sensibility of Cameron and his allies.

His chase for stolen funds has also induced other negative comments meant to curry the favour of the international community to return stolen money, but with obvious negative investor confidence. Analysts and investors say these comments, often made abroad, are sending negative signals to foreign investors about Nigeria, which is already passing through low business confidence occasioned by policy delays and inconsistencies.

Ike Ibeabuchi, CEO of MD Services Limited, told BusinessDay that officials of a foreign firm which wanted to buy into his chemical company told him one month ago that they were ‘no longer sure about Nigeria’.

“This is after we had agreed to put pen to paper. What I see is that there are more efforts on telling the world how bad we are and fewer efforts on telling them that the fraction of corrupt people are not up to one in ten thousand,” Ibeabuchi said. “Someone needs to sell Nigeria. Buhari needs not be so conscious of the international community while making comments.  With these comments, how many investors have come? I am an investor and can tell you none,” he said.

An investor who was interested in Nigeria’s agro processing industry told BusinessDay recently in South Africa that the stories he had heard about Nigeria in recent times were ‘a bit scary’, saying that he was keeping his money ‘for now’.   

Charles Robertson, global chief economist for Renaissance Capital, told BusinessDay that those creating the impression that Nigeria is fantastically corrupt do not understand history.

“What I find fascinating is the always recurring emphasis on Nigeria’s corruption,” said Robertson.

“It is unfair to say that Nigeria is particularly corrupt when its corruption spot is about 25 on the transparency index; it is exactly where you would think it should be, given its per capita GDP. So I don’t try to say Nigeria should be like the United States because there are so many differences. You should be thinking about how Nigeria is doing relative to the United States when it was at a similar level of income,” he said.

Apart from being the biggest economy in the continent, Nigeria has latent opportunities in the services sector, which contributes 51 percent to GDP. With diversification mantra, a retinue of French, US and Chinese investors were at different times in the country in the past 12 months vowing to make commitments in agricultural and manufacturing sectors, but none has done anything after then.                                                                                                                                

Investment in the manufacturing sector fell N1.3 trillion year-on –year in 2014.  Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria dipped 27 percent to $3.4 billion in 2015, as against $4.7 billion the previous year. In fact, investment inflows into various sectors have taken a dive, indicating that Nigeria needs its president to become an effective salesman, while driving anti-corruption.

Nigeria is blessed with arable land for agribusiness and several raw materials and solid mineral resources that support industries. Its transport sector is still underdeveloped and needs eagle-eyed investors to tap into its ocean economy.

“Not only the comments, but also the policies. That, indeed, includes the economic team. We do not need to drive a heavy-duty machinery with the brakes fully engaged,” said Ben Osisioma, professor of accounting and lecturer at one of the universities in Nigeria.

ODINAKA ANUDU & LOLADE AKINMURELE