Worry slows Yar’Adua’s economic agenda, says Citibank report - Business Day

President Umaru Yar’Adua is making little or no progress in pushing a new economic reform agenda because of fear of a possible unfavourable outcome at the presidential election tribunal, says an analytical document on Nigeria by Citibank, London.

The document, prepared and released across the world by the bank plate last month, says there is political uncertainty in Yar’Adua’s presidency and that there might be no major economic move until early next year.

According to the Citibank document, "there is concern that the presidential tribunal hearing petitions against the conduct of the election will demand a re-run of the poll.

"Given the political uncertainty, progress on announcing a new economic reform agenda has been limited, there were no major initiatives in the 2008 budget, presented in November, and we expect no major policy document until 2008."

Prepared by Citibank’s Africa economist, David Cowan, the document identifies what it called the presence of "important political fault lines in the country," noting that progress with the presidential petition has been moving slowly, and that a ruling was not likely until early 2008. Full Story