To borrow a phrase from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Muhammadu Buhari must move “from thinking, to doing.” His “body language political doctrine” needs a little bit more fillip to deliver his electoral promises. The optimism that greeted his ascendancy as President is fast eroding.
With several observable false starts, some wonder if the President is ready for the arduous job of governance.
Beyond what is turning out to be a media trial(?), and appearances of allegedly corrupt former officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and opposition Peoples Democratic Party, at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the law courts, very little is brewing from Aso Rock.
Yet, there is evidence that the government is overwheming the Boko Haram whose claim to territory and sporadic spree of bombings has abated somewhat. They appear to have resorted to attacking neighbouring Cameroon and Chad for actively supporting Nigeria in prosecuting the war.
Even so, the All Progressives Congress stalwarts complain that Buhari still retains Jonathan appointess in agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria, News Agency of Nigeria, National Orientation Agency, Nigerian Television Authority, National Women Centre, and even ambassadorial positions. Many have concluded that the APC has neither the plans nor the personnel for these positions.
Many have accepted the President’s explanations that he delayed appointments to his cabinet because he needed to streamline the ministries before finding the ministers with the perfect fit. But they wonder why there is no economic team or economic adviser to the government.
Government’s plan to “stimulate the economy…; reduce cost of governance…, increase government expenditure on infrastructure… and fund the budget deficit…,” is more of a checklist than an economic conceptual framework.
This lack of a systemic overview has made the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), to unilaterally and arbitrarily set a N1tn 2016 revenue target for the Nigeria Customs Service, while the Managing Director of Nigerian Export Import Bank, Robert Onya, unwittingly contradicts him with the claim that the government has set a revenue target of $2bn from non-oil sources.
Except for the Ministers of Information and Culture and Petroleum Resources, Lai Mohammed and Ibe Kachikwu, who seem to be fully prepared, and have engaged the various agencies and constituent groups under their portfolios, others, like the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, are gradually easing into their assignments by stealth meetings and consultations. Yet, others lack a precise grasp of their assignments or are bungling outright their briefs.
You must be aware of claims and counterclaims that the version of the 2016 budget proposals, presented by the President to the joint session of the National Assembly, is different from the version allegedly printed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, for the Senate. The House of Representatives insists that its version agrees with the version presented by Mr. President.
The PDP House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, is feasting on this lapse. He contends that the budget proposal is no longer N6.8tn: “This is an incomplete budget. We have done our calculation of the details, and we have found that the budget that Mr. President presented is N6.03tn, not (the) N6.07tn (that it was revised to, or the N6.08tn that the media thought it was).”
The Presidency has admitted its error-without quite stating the error-, has written to withdraw the version of the budget “with the virus” from the Senate, and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning has posted the “correct” version of the budget on its website. Obasanjo threw in more spanners by his allusion to the Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun’s hint that dipping crude oil revenue will bloat the N2.2bn deficit in the 2016 budget to N3tn.
At his confirmation as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, promised to reduce inflation and interest rates; resist devaluation of the naira and dollarisation of the Nigerian economy. He hasn’t accomplished any of these. He recently threw up his hands in surrender, and asked Nigerians to brace themselves for hard times because of tanking oil revenue, and the CBN’s inability to persuade commercial banks (his constituency) to lend to the real sector.
He announced the retention of 11 per cent Monetary Policy Rate, grandiloquence for interest rate, with the cop out, “Unfortunately, the (banks) are in business to make money (no one thought they were Red Cross), and we cannot regulate interest rate… It is a free market and we cannot compel them as it is expected.” Emefiele and his team should be asked to go, so that fresh ideas can filter into the thinking of the Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN.
Analysts argue that the falling exchange rate of the naira may further spike the landing cost of imported petroleum products, and lead to the reintroduction of the petrol subsidy. The flip flop in economic policy will have a negative multiplier effect on other commodities in the economy.
A trade group has identified infrastructure deficits, foreign exchange restrictions, and generally high cost of doing business as the three main challenges to the Nigerian economy in 2016. They counselled government to rather widen the tax net instead of increasing the Value Added Tax from five to 10 per cent.
Though there is talk about de-emphasising the use of crude oil price as benchmark for the 2016 budget, it doesn’t quite look like the government has an explicit Plan B, in response to predictions by international financial securities firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, City Group Bank, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, that the price of oil may plunge as low as $20.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange recently announced a $30bn erosion of stock capitalisation. And the subtle plea by the bourse denizens for investors to come for funds is not yielding results. The seeming indecision, and the sometimes reversal, of policies by this government caused the foreign players on the bourse to dump their shares like hot potatoes.
Though the infrastructure component was upped in the 2016 budget proposal, you wonder why government holds on to the jaded refineries that produce just one quarter of the petroleum products needs of the nation. Government should disregard the counsel of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria to build new refineries, but encourage private investors to come in by urgently seeking the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
One urgent matter is how to migrate the political elite from the pretence that Nigeria is a melting pot, where a variety of peoples, cultures, and religions are assimilated into a cohesive whole. Everyone knows that Nigeria is a quilt of distinct tendencies that can only be addressed by “true federalism,” as a former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, argues.
The Federal Government should heed Anyaoku’s counsel, join the National Assembly in going beyond cosmetic review of the constitution, receive a lower revenue allocation and be restricted to external affairs, defence, immigration, customs, etc. The 36 states, collapsed into six stronger states, will have six state governors, civil services, legislatures, judiciaries, etc.
Smart people will agree with Anyaoku that this should douse cries of marginalisation and reduce cost of governance. Governance must migrate from rhetoric of manifesto to concrete political and economic deliverables. Democracy must come with dividends: And well done is better than well said.
PUNCH
END
Be the first to comment