The Nigerian economy continues to be pushed into bankruptcy by unrelenting and unyielding corrupt practices. Former United States President, Donald Trump, in his speech on why he hates Africans and Arabs, which is being circulated in social media, explained, “Corruption in the West (and China) is an abomination, but in Africa, it is so huge that it is slowly becoming an acceptable way of life (shame isn’t it?).” Nigerians now live on handouts from their government. Palliative regimes now succeed palliative regimes.
Poverty is deepening and seems to it being used as a weapon of oppression. Zeroing in on Nigeria, Trump in the referred social media outburst, said, “Look at what is currently going on in Nigeria National Assembly. Legislators amending the constitution to favour themselves at the expense of 200 million Nigerians. The present administration now has no economic blueprint other than noise and false propaganda. Characterised with hatred and witch-hunt/impoverishment… What a shame”! Black people with black sense, and a sick president in London for medical tourism.”
You cannot fault the man. You asked for it and you got it. A country endowed with human and non-human wealth with the latter being exploited daily cannot feed itself, cannot provide basic needs like water, electricity, good roads, quality education and health services after over 60 years of independence! The country has the largest number of billionaires in Africa in dollar terms and most of them have no factories or enterprises they established generating output, income and employment. They achieved the feat because they have held political offices or have been busybodies in the corridors of power. Nigeria is a country where it is possible to clap with one hand or live perpetually in pretence or falsehood.
Corruption remains the number one enemy of the nation and Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress corruptly cashed in on the eagerness of Nigerians to get rid of it during the 2019 elections. It was erroneously believed by Nigerians that Buhari was the real man behind the euphemism: “War against indiscipline” used to clean up corruption in Nigeria during his first coming in 1984. Many of us bought into the APC gimmick and not only voted but convinced many neutral voters to vote for Buhari. His government deepened corruption and we also failed to apologise to those voters for misguiding them.
It is not in our nature to apologise for wrongdoing. Instead, we use boldface to carry on as if nothing happened. The result of the Buhari administration was that Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world, the country with the highest number of out-of-school children, and the loss of productive capacity to meet the demand for oil quota allocated by OPEC. Instead of curing the country’s sickness with the APC, the applied dosage aggravated the suffering of the masses, whether in the middle class or at the lower rung of the ladder.
The extension of the maladministration, mismanagement of resources and upgrade of corruption not only resulted in the accumulation of the highest level of debt (as if no income was earned) but also pushed the Nigerian economy into the fourth position from where it was As rightly noted by Trump, the present administration, like the two before it, has no economic blueprint to work upon. Even the one that the Buhari government grudgingly completed in the twilight of his regime has been set aside by the present government from the same party! The Nigerian economy is run on an ad hoc basis. Every ministry, department and agency has its own goal to achieve the $1 trillion economy. There is no interdependence or closely knit working national plan to show the linkage in activities towards achieving the common goal. An ad hoc economic coordinating committee has been established by the president to monitor or coordinate the spending of the new N2 trillion economic revamping plan which they have no hand in its policy formulation, even when the new arrangement should be based on outcomes of the lessons learnt from the last economic revamping exercise.
Those earlier exercises were outright failures as we do not need data to show that the cost of living has worsened the standard of living and output has continued to decline with the unemployment rate moving northward. Why did those earlier plans fail? We are not told because the government does not want to discuss it. Discussing it can elicit suggestions that will improve subsequent reform planning and implementation. The huge funds never reached their destination. There were no timelines and targets. There was no transparency and accountability and the call for such was ignored by the government; possibly because the government sees it as a way of compensating its political field officers, not actually meant to reach the masses.
I do not foresee the success of the new interventions. Are we running a budget? Which year? Are these ad hoc interventions in the budget or the medium-term framework? Where is the fund coming from? Is it from income generated from taxes, from oil and non-oil revenues, or from borrowing? We are told by the available official figures that the ratio of debt to GDP is now 50 per cent! Why would our exchange rate situation not worsen? Why would the inflation come down? Why do we expect the cost of living and poverty level to tumble? If we don’t humble ourselves and spend within our means, the impending political imbroglio will humble the government. Nothing truncates political progress in a nascent democracy than economic hardship.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission warned recently that the planned protests were being backed by some people under probe. That is an alibi. In the current economic situation with Nigerian citizens, nobody needs to be behind any protest before it occurs. The present economic hardship which the President himself has acknowledged is a necessary and sufficient condition for such an action. The government needs to quickly solve the issue of minimum wage, and disburse funds for production in agriculture in which states have to engage unemployed youths in various short-term training programmes in tractor operation, planting, managing farms, et cetera.
The situation in which governments go to market to buy up commodities for distribution is not helpful. Instead, the products should be bought directly from the producers which encourage them to go into further production requiring employing more hands or generating employment. The funding of education is not about giving scholarships or education loans and grants to students. It involves the provision of quality learning and learning environments. Skill acquisition in universities or tertiary institutions generally has been very appalling because the training facilities are not available. Practical lesson•s in real terms do not take place and that is why skill manpower is very low in the labour market.
The only area doing well is in information technology because of the opportunity available in the private sector where they intern during their training. There is a need to prioritise education in whatever programme the government is mounting. Governance is a serious business and I want to see some seriousness in governance in this country to change my opinion that the government is just taking us for a ride. The government is spending huge funds without reference to an approved budget and procedure, and no economic plan. The government is commissioning a bus stop as if we have just mounted a homemade satellite in orbit! Some governors are commissioning streetlights, four sets of classrooms and public toilets. Nigeria failed woefully in the Millennium Development Goals project and no success is being made in the Sustainable Development Goals, which expires in six years.
Poverty is mounting, production is going down. A country that produces crude oil is importing crude oil and refined fuel in what can be referred to as double jeopardy. The country needs recalibration in governance and economic management. It is not enough to say “God save Nigeria.” We have to save ourselves from ourselves. It is possible. Government policies should be based on facts or research outputs. In addition, just let us be transparent and accountable in our dealings.
• Sheriffdeen Adewale Tella is a Nigerian academic economist and professor of economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University.