Fomer Chairman of Goldman Sach O’Neill Says Jonathan Election Loss May Be Nigeria Positive

According to Jim O’Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, if the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan loss out in the general elections next month may be viewed “positively” by foreign investors and probably won’t rattle markets, .
 
The reason he gave was that  Jonathan decisions in the last four years were not good enough for the economy and growth of Nigeria sectors. In a Jan. 7 interview in the capital, Abuja O’Neill said "he has presided over the sale of the nation’s mismanaged power utilities to private investors, his economic policies in the last four years “could have been better." 


" Firing central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi last year, who brought “a lot of credibility” to the government, sent out a negative signal, he said.

“If he doesn’t get re-elected, and it’s because of Nigerian people wanting something different and something better, I think the markets would be happy with that,” said O’Neill. “Foreign investors are pretty negative about Nigeria, so I don’t dismiss the possibility that if he lost people actually might react positively.”

O’Neill ranks Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, alongside Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey in his MINT group. The countries have four of the largest emerging-market populations outside the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, an acronym he coined at Goldman.

Read More Bloomberg

Photo Credit: Bloomberg