It was around 3pm on New Year Day, Friday, January 1, 2016. I smelled something unusual as I took a deep breath. I kind of sniffed the air to confirm the odd smell. I then told my wife that the air in the living room wasn’t smelling right. She startled and looked at me: “I hope you’re not falling ill again, because the last time you said the air was cloudy, the problem was with your eyes and not with the air”, she said. She was referring to a time when the cataract in my eyes gave me blurry vision, which was eventually corrected by surgery.
This time round, it was discovered that nothing was wrong with my sense of smell. My wife confirmed this when she walked into the bedroom where windows were open on two sides of the room for cross ventilation. She suspected generator smoke. It could not have been from our own generator because it was located far away from the house. To verify what it was, I stepped out of the house into the open compound. The air was filled with generator smoke. I stepped onto the street and took a short walk. My breath was smelling generator fume. I ran back inside and shut all the windows. It then dawned on me that the entire Ijapo neighbourhood in Akure had been on generators of different sizes and age for over a week. Indeed, Akure, the Ondo State capital, had no electric power supply for the entire festive period from Christmas through the New Year.
To complicate matters, the petrol needed to power the generators was in short supply. Where available, a gallon of petrol had been selling for between N120.00 and N150.00 for over two months, depending on location and time of day. At a small roadside petrol station on December 31, 2015, a petrol attendant had put his own cut on top of the already high price, leading to a quarrel between him and some okada riders, who claimed they had bought fuel there hours earlier at a lower price. Fortunately, the station manager arrived on time to resolve the matter.
On the other side of the petrol station, another quarrel was brewing. A welder was pleading with an irate landlord that lack of electric power supply had adversely affected his revenue, thereby making it difficult for him to pay his rent as promised. A female petty trader joined the welder to plead with the landlord, arguing that she too would not be able to pay her rent to her landlord because government workers, who purchased foodstuffs on credit, had failed to pay off their indebtedness to her. What a way to end 2015, and begin 2016, I thought to myself.
My mind immediately went to millions of citizens throughout the country, who were caught up in similar economic predicaments. Imagine the plight of workers in both public and private institutions, who are owed salaries from two to six months or even more. In many cases, the so-called bailout provided by the Federal Government was not enough to pay off all salary arrears and allowances for government workers. As I write, Ondo workers are owed arrears of salaries and some allowances for two months.
Against the above backgrounds, no prophet is needed to tell us that 2016 may be a rough year. With dwindling oil resources, there is no magic by which federal allocations to the states will increase soon. Since many states now receive allocations that are far below their monthly wage bills, a number of them will owe arrears of salaries throughout 2016, if not beyond.
It will also take time before significant improvements are experienced in the electric power and oil sectors. True, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing all it can to bring the situation under control, the most it can do for much of this year is precisely that – bring the situation under control. It may take another year before significant improvements are experienced in the power sector. However, immediate improvement is possible in the oil sector. I will return to that issue shortly.
Commodity prices may also increase as the naira gets weaker and weaker owing partly to the falling price of oil and partly to the profligacy of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, which mopped up the dollar supply in the country and squandered it on a failed re-election bid. Both developments have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the Central Bank of Nigeria to have enough dollars to defend the naira. Unfortunately, the subsequent stringent dollar withdrawal restrictions established by the CBN are affecting many citizens and businesses with genuine dollar Domiciliary Accounts from which they cannot withdraw their dollars because of scarcity of supply. The multiplier effects are affecting payments to workers, suppliers, vendors, contractors, and business partners.
There are also security problems, which may continue to affect local businesses, while also keeping investors at bay, thereby affecting the employment generation project of the Federal Government. The problems include terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping, cattle grazing and rustling, and the pro-Biafran agitation. While some of these problems appeared to be partially in remission during the holidays, they are not eradicated. What is needed is a comprehensive, rather than ad hoc, security policy that addresses all of these problems.
The above problems notwithstanding, 2016 needs not be a disastrous year. They say it often gets worse before it gets better. Let’s hope it doesn’t get any worse. A series of policies must be developed by federal and state governments in order to make it a fruitful year. First, the new pump price of petrol should be enforced and then followed by the removal of fuel subsidy, thus freeing some funds for development. The pump price of petrol has crashed all over the world, following falling oil prices. Nigeria should not be an exception.
Second, federal and state governments should begin a gradual policy of workforce reduction, whereby certain positions from which workers retire are left unfilled. This should begin with a staff audit, not just to detect ghost workers but to identify key positions to be retained and redundant positions to be eliminated over time. The truth is that no nation can keep pace with the global trend in economic development by spending between 60 and 70 per cent of its budget on paying workers’ salaries and allowances.
Third, serious attention should be given to power supply in order to provide the necessary infrastructure for small and large scale businesses and to encourage citizens to develop their entrepreneurial skills. The more citizens are able to vend for themselves outside government, the more money is available to government for development.
Moreover, a power policy should be developed by which increasing electric power supply is accompanied by gradual restrictions on the importation and use of power generators. The usage restriction should begin with government institutions, which currently budget and spend billions of naira on generator purchase, fuelling, and maintenance.
Fourth, effort should be intensified to develop the agriculture and solid mineral sectors of the economy both to raise the nation’s revenue profile and to generate employment.
Finally, the Federal Government, working with the National Assembly, should initiate a bill by which Local Government Areas get their allocations directly from Abuja. It has been argued that if the indigenes of any local government know exactly how much accrues to their LGA monthly and when it is provided, they will be on the neck of local council members for the proper use of such funds. The present system by which LGA executives are at the mercy of their state governors is rather untidy. At the same time, states and LGAs should begin to increase their internally generated revenue, even beyond the collection of taxes.
PUNCH
END
Be the first to comment