NOTE: The first part of this series might create the impression that this is political commentary. Even the Editor was alarmed enough to call me about it. Readers need to understand the reason for the historical summary. Every promise involves two elements, the promise and the entity making the promise. Nigerian political history has demonstrated that political alliances don’t last; and the promises made are never fulfilled. APC is another coalition whose sustainability will determine the fate of the promises made to us. Please read on.
“The wife of the President, Her Excellency Aisha Buhari, has appealed to the ruling All Progressives Congress not to renege on its campaign promise of paying N5000 to 25 million unemployed Nigerians and giving school children one free meal a day.” PUNCH, November 11, 2015, p 3. We will return to the statement credited to Mrs Buhari later because it gives sufficient cause for concern about the promise and the possibility that the ruling party is already rethinking its promise. All is certainly not well – politically and especially financially.
Meanwhile, there is an urgent problem – which might be related to the disunity of purpose among APC leaders. It can be summarized in the question: what exactly did APC promise Nigerians? And who promised it. President Buhari was the beneficiary of the promises Nigerians thought were made to them. He would also be the victim if the exact promises he endorsed are not made known to Nigerians and fulfilled.
Two “promises” have suddenly become controversial; and they need not be. The two concern feeding of school children, and N5,000 to be paid monthly to unemployed Nigerians. A credibility gap is developing calling for the President to state clearly what his government intends to do about the two. It is likely there are other promises, hastily tossed out during the campaigns. Even if the APC and most Nigerians forget, the PDP will remind us. That is the beauty of democracy; an active opposition party should hold the government to their promises.
Let me quickly summarise my position on these issues. Those who persuaded Buhari that Nigeria could offer free meals to over 20 million pupils daily and pay N5,000 to over 25 million jobless people are condemnable liars. I think I know them. Those promises cannot be fulfilled in 2015-2019. Nigeria will not be rich enough for that. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” American Economics Professor, September 1964.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo started the movement for “free” public services when he launched the “Free Education” Programme in the old Western Region in the 1950s. That mis-branding of a laudable idea had since created a lot of problems for us in Nigeria – including the two under discussion at the moment. We now have “free pilgrimages” to Jerusalem and Mecca; as well as free rides on Expressways. When Obasanjo ordered that toll gates be dismantled he took Nigeria back to the nineteenth century.
Where else in the civilized world can one drive free on expressways usually built by raising bonds which had to be repaid from the tolls collected? Governments, at all levels, have been deprived of trillions of naira which should have been collected from tolls and used to maintain the roads in good condition. In most countries, governments don’t build roads. A Public-Private-Partnership, PPP, undertakes the construction and maintenance without touching the public purse – except by paying taxes to the nation.
The gimmick involved in calling Public Education “Free Education” was pardonable when very few Nigerians had read economics or were literate. The Progressives should discard it. Nothing is free; not lunch for school children and not N5000 for unemployed Nigerians. Since the public is going to pay for it, the public must be told and shown in writing what studies were undertaken and who conducted the survey to determine that Nigeria could afford to feed 20 million school children a meal per day and provide N5000 per month to 25 million adults.
A major and exhaustive study was carried out before Awolowo launched the “Free Primary Education” Programme. My eldest brother, late Chief Sanu Sobowale, former Attorney General Lagos State under Jakande, was Private Secretary to Alhaji Adegbenro, Minister of Lands and Labour in the old Western Region. Our family house at Inalende Street, was directly opposite that of Hohourable Lanlehin. I can recollect the bulky document which both brought home to read before the programme was launched.
It was detailed in every respect and the Head of Service, late Simeon Adebo, a consummate public administrator, made valuable inputs before the programme was launched. The population of school children then could not have been up to two million and they were all concentrated in the region. That document would show that “free education” was funded by a special levy imposed on adults – irrespective of whether they had school age kids or not.
In other words, those without kids were subsidizing those with kids in schools. That was what made the mantra “Free education” a lie. It was a subsidy programme. Now, we have over 45 million people (kids and jobless adults) located in all states and Local Government Councils of Nigeria. It is a mind-boggling undertaking.
Nigerians therefore expect that those who persuaded Buhari to promise one “free” meal per day to school children should immediately publish the study they undertook before deciding it is feasible without imposing additional levies on adults. Similarly, they should immediately make available the study undertaken to determine that N5000 per month can be paid to 25 million unemployed Nigerians and how they suggest that the programme can be funded.
We are leaving untouched such questions as: how was it decided it should be N5000 per day and not N10,000 or N20,000? How was the figure 25 million derived given that the number of unemployed Nigerians could be closer to 50 million? Those who handed Buhari those two “hot potatoes” have done the President a disservice as the next segment will show….
VANGUARD
END
Be the first to comment