Until now, various officials of the Buhari administration, especially the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, had claimed that Nigeria’s rice importation had dropped, and that in fact, we had produced so much rice locally that rice mills in Thailand were shutting down in droves because there was no demand from Nigeria. Yet, the US Department of Agriculture says rice importation by Nigeria has increased, and that the country will remain the world’s second largest importer of rice by 2019 (second to China).
Incidentally, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, is now debating whether rice importation has dropped or increased.
They said that Nigeria’s out-of-school children have reduced to eight million but UNICEF says it has increased to 13.2 million and that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
While in opposition, the All Progressives Congress said that there was nothing like fuel subsidy, that any fuel subsidy payment was a fraud. When they got into government, we not only confirmed that fuel subsidy exists, but that they have christened it Under-Recovery and are even paying much more fuel subsidy unappropriated than the previous government, by illegally diverting money from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and NLNG. Curiously, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the NNPC are debating who, between government and the oil corporation, is paying the subsidy. The Yoruba say, “Omi Eko, Eko ni”, the water in pap is pap as well.
When in opposition, they said that fuel importation by independent petroleum marketers was a scam. Now in government, they handle it solely through the NNPC and have almost doubled the daily consumption volume that they previously described was a scam. The NNPC is debating the daily fuel consumption volumes.
While in opposition, they said that they would reduce fuel price from N87 per litre to N40 per litre. When they got into government, they first increased fuel price to N141 per litre and subsequently hunkered down and increased it further to N145 per litre. This was while paying more fuel subsidy than their predecessors.
We are being told that they may have to increase fuel price again.
They said that they had rooted out corruption, plugged leakages, weeded out “ghost workers”, ended wastage, but the only veritable confirmation of these claims should have been a drastic reduction in expenditure on all those lines. Yet, these expenditure lines have almost all witnessed increases, and in the case of salaries, wages and pensions, an almost N500bn increase.
They say that they are winning the war against corruption, which ordinarily should reflect in our rankings under the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The reverse is the case as Nigeria moved from 136 to 148 in the world this year. Probably, the worst ever retrogression within a one-year period.
They say we have technically defeated Boko Haram, and that Nigeria is more secure than it has ever been, yet every day, our gallant soldiers are being slaughtered and secretly buried in cemeteries; our kith and kin are daily butchered by marauding herdsmen.
They said that they have only borrowed $10bn since 2015, yet, they met $10.31682bn external debt in June 2015, and increased it to $22.083bn by June 2018 (met the more expensive in June $1.5bn external commercial in 2015, increased it to $8.8bn in June 2018). Met N8.3965tn domestic debt in June 2015, and increased it to N12.151tn by June 2018. But the naira has since been devalued so the Vice President argues that they only borrowed $10bn, and this by converting the naira debt by today’s exchange rate.
They say that they have lifted 10.073 million Nigerians from poverty to prosperity, yet, a report by Brookings Institution (the American research group) reveals that Nigeria (with a population of 198 million) has overtaken India (with a population of 1.324bn people) as the poverty capital of the world with 87 million people in Nigeria living in extreme poverty, compared to India’s 73 million.
Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, is still debating the numbers lifted or cast into poverty.
I can go on and on (you can add your own), but the summary is that nothing adds up with this government. It is all propaganda, sophistry, demagoguery, smoke and mirrors.
Dr Jekwu Ozoemene, Port Harcourt, Rivers State
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