The nationwide demonstrations in which hundreds of Nigerians took to the streets in major cities to protest the prevailing economic hardship, high cost of living and government handling of economic crisis in the country should be a wake-up call to President Buhari and his APC government to stop whining and concentrate on the business of leading Nigeria at this time when the economy requires creativity and resourceful leadership. The economy is in tatters amid raging poverty but instead of concentrating on what his government would do to lead the country out of the current economic crisis, Buhari has been wasting precious time making excuses and blaming past administrations for the current woes of the country. This is no longer acceptable at a time Nigerians are looking up to the president to take the nation out of the abyss into which, certainly, past administrations had plunged it. Certainly, this is what Nigerians elected him to do.
Although the initiator of the protest, leading Afro-pop star 2Face, pulled out of the rally because of security concerns, his call to action – a rare event from a Nigerian celebrity- had received widespread popular support from several civil society organizations who decided to carry on with the protest, even in Abuja, where dozens marched to the presidential villa in protest against the federal government’s shoddy handling of the economic crisis and skyrocketing food prices. In a damning self-indictment, the presidency said it was aware of the hardships people face daily. Acting president Yemi Osinbajo said the government would work towards re-positioning the economy to ease the protesters’ pains. “To those who are on the streets protesting the economic situation and even those who are not, but feel the pain of economic hardship, we hear you loud and clear. You deserve a decent life and we are working night and day to make life easier,” he tweeted. If the government is truly listening, then it should get to work and not join the people in complaining. When leaders do nothing but blame predecessors for their poor performance, who would the people blame?
Nigeria’s current difficult economic situation has been appropriately attributed to several factors, including falling oil prices and cut in oil production. The lack of fiscal buffers, structural constraints, and fuel, electricity, and foreign exchange scarcities have further compounded these difficulties. It is a gut-wrenching reality that the recession has continued to bite even harder than envisaged. Indeed, all measures, if any, adopted by the government to remedy the situation have been futile as life remains painfully hard. There, of course, are no easy short-cuts for the government to deal with the economic challenges but the people need a break from hardship. At times like this, the country needs bold and innovative leadership not whiners who make excuses. Nigeria ranks a dismal 181 out of 189 countries surveyed for “Ease of doing Business” by the World Bank. This means despite all the assurances and hundreds of seminars and panel reports on how to reform the public service and improve the business climate to deal with obstacles to business startups such as registration, land acquisition, rule of law and compliance with extant rules, nothing has changed. This is unacceptable.
Nigerians have been suffering after a fall in oil prices since mid-2014 slashed government revenue, pushing up inflation to more than 20% and weakening the naira. Inflation, unemployment, and capital formation data as well as the manufacturing performance index of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) show a terrible economic downturn. The tragedy now is that the country’s misery index has only worsened. After bearing months of excuses about the nation’s poor economic fortunes, Nigerians were excited to hear the government has commenced payment of N5000 to poor Nigerians under the Conditional Cash Transfer Program. Whilst some may see this as a salutary and self-redeeming gesture, the payment of N5000 monthly to one million poor Nigerians as a strategy for reducing poverty does not rank high as an economic policy. In fact, giving out money to poor Nigerians is an action bereft of clear thinking and political wisdom. Its implementation is therefore a deliberate costly mistake
To begin with, what is the yardstick for measuring poverty in Nigeria? Even if that is settled, how do you identify one million poor Nigerians across the 36 states and the FCT? Furthermore, what is the value of N5000 monthly to these poor Nigerians? Is it to augment whatever they make, if at all they earn a living? Or is it government’s philanthropy from tax-payers money? Besides, what is the opportunity cost? N5000 monthly for one million people translates to N5 billion per month. Can the government afford this over-generous spending over time? Can’t this money be used to create jobs?
As a poverty alleviation strategy, this free money bazaar is a classic case of gimmickry and caricature of empowerment which contradicts the prescription of economic theory to stimulate an economy. By doling out money to some supposed poor, the government is not only creating an industry out of indolence and idleness, it is also indirectly disregarding the dignity of work. To work is a fundamental aspect of what makes the human person; it is an activity through which man expresses his self-worth and produces useful result. Thus any official program of poverty alleviation that is geared toward charity, or disregards the essential quality of work, is denigrating. Apart from being injurious to human dignity, it is also inimical to economic growth. The government cannot alleviate poverty by paying for, and creating indolence.
In its campaign manifesto, the APC committed itself to: “create additional middle class of at least two million new home owners in our first year in government, and one million annually thereafter…” It also promised to “increase national health expenditure per person per annum to about N50,000 (from the less than N10,000 currently)”. A year and a half down the road, none of these has been fulfilled. A lot needs to be done to lay the foundation for economic recovery, sustainable long-term economic growth and inclusive prosperity. The economy must be diversified, but the president must show leadership.
Buhari appears to have a predilection to grant too much power to his subordinates. That is not leadership. It is dereliction of responsibility. There is a clear difference between delegation and abdication of power and authority. Having been president before, Buhari cannot claim inexperience. He sought this job with so much persistence; so, he must take charge of his government and start delivering on his promises to voters. Change was the rallying cry of Buhari and his party to Nigerians. It was also the one word promise they wanted the people to believe they would honor. Voters did their part by voting for them. Buhari and the APC must, as a matter of honor, do and be seen to do, theirs. The president must stop complaining and making excuses and lead the quest for a true Nigeria.
